Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia
The challenge that faces the education environment has always been to ensure that the quality of teaching and learning is maintained. One possible path for improving the quality of education lies in the application of the ideas of Total Quality Management (TQM) to the teaching and learning (T&L) process. Employing these TQM quality attributes in the education context creates value for educational institutions, employers, and students. This paper focuses on the limited application areas of specific key components of TQM methods/tools in managing, scrutinizing and enhancing the quality of teaching and learning practices in the classroom environment. This paper also identifies and uses TQM principles to focus on the needs, expectations, experiences and problems
of students, on collecting feedback for the continuous improvement of teaching and student learning by evaluating issues such as those applied to course design and objectives, classroom practice, resources, lecturer -student interactions, materials, assessment, and on the effectiveness of previous improvements made. Such application of TQM pedagogical methodology is intended to assist and guide students and lecturers with improved framework of teaching and learning that promote and encourage continued learning.
Keywords: teaching; learning; TQM