Applying total-quality-management principles to improving engineering education

Abstract

Peer review of teaching is assumed to be an excellent tool, next to student evaluation, to measure the quality of a professor. This argument builds on the fact that only peers can understand the material of the engineering discipline and are up-to-date with the practice. On the other hand, virtually no engineering professor has had any training in being an educator, never having passed a course in pedagogy or instruction. This paper will first review this inconsistency before introducing the substance of scholarly teaching. The main section, however, discusses a new and dynamic model for a peer review of teaching that introduces a process of constant improvement. It is believed that replacing the old method of peer review is vital in persuading the engineering professoriate to implement the changes called for by many blue-ribbon committees. However, this change has to be framed by an institutional culture that provides the incentives for continuous improvements of teaching by an ongoing increase of the competence level of teachers who, today, lack any significant training in education.