How to involve everyone in quality improvement in education

Very often, quality assurance is seen as the task of a designated person ‘the quality officer’ or the relevant department ‘the quality department’. Teachers, trainers and students in schools and training organisations are barely involved in quality issues. They follow quality procedures, they fill-in some forms and questionnaires and that’s it. They do not really engage themselves and in fact nobody asks from them to be more actively involved.

However, the creation of a quality culture in an organisation requires active involvement of all affected persons, not only in the implementation phase, but also in the planning, evaluation and review phases of the quality cycle.

Acknowledging the importance of active involvement of staff and students in quality improvement, the project Qual4T organised a seminar, in which these issues been discussed: How to involve students in quality improvement? How to keep everyone in a school/workplace involved in quality?

world cafe

The discussion took place in a nice restaurant in Elburg, Netherlands, on 24th of September 2015. The participants were asked to reply to questions, writing their answers in post-its. Below, we summarise their replies.

 

How to involve students in quality improvement?

  • Making them aware of the relevance of the acquired competences for the labour market
  • Give and take feedback and doing some contracts
  • By asking for their feedback not only on the lessons but on the school as well
  • Asking them what expectations they have
  • By letting them evaluate their lessons after a set period
  • By letting them communicate frequently what they think is best and needs to be improved
  • Ask them!: let them choose the way to be involved; let them set their quality criteria
  • Asking for suggestions for improvement from the students
  • Organise students panels
  • Sent questionnaires
  • Focus group to share with teaches, tutors and didactic coordinators training needs/learning outcomes evaluation
  • Inspiration! Inspiration! Inspiration!
  • By taking them seriously

 

How to keep everyone in a school/workplace involved in quality?

  • By sharing success stories of the staff  in direct contact with “clients”
  • Invest time and funds
  • Promote, stimulate change
  • By involving them
  • Showing the advantages they could have for themselves
  • To show them future perspective and their engagement
  • By showing them that their feedback and suggestions are taken into account
  • By working bottom up!
  • By making quality their own business
  • Ask for people’s input
  • Respect people’s views and suggestions
  • Put into practice students’recommendations even if not very elaborated
  • Be open to criticism
  • Listen
  • By making quality attractive: show its benefits, keep it easy, keep it clear and purposeful
  • By keeping all the actors updated
  • By asking them their expectations and involve/consider them
  • Reaching viable results
  • Model players

 

How to involve students in quality improvement?

  • Making them aware of the relevance of the acquired competences for the labour market
  • Give and take feedback and doing some contracts
  • By asking for their feedback not only on the lessons but on the school as well
  • Asking them what expectations they have
  • By letting them evaluate their lessons after a set period
  • By letting them communicate frequently what they think is best and needs to be improved
  • Ask them!: let them choose the way to be involved; let them set their quality criteria
  • Asking for suggestions for improvement from the students
  • Organise students panels
  • Sent questionnaires
  • Focus group to share with teaches, tutors and didactic coordinators training needs/learning outcomes evaluation
  • Inspiration! Inspiration! Inspiration!
  • By taking them seriously