Western Kentucky University
Department of Physics and Astronomy

Colloquium

Dr. Jamie Millan

Physics Department
Dyersburg State Community College

"Improving physics teaching with quality concepts and tools"

January 13, 2003 @ 4:00 PM in TCCW 251

Coffee at 3:30 in TCCW 368

Abstract

Quality principles and tools have been successfully applied in the manufacturing and service industries for a long time and it is becoming recognized that they may be very useful when applied by faculty to academic activities and particularly for the design, delivery and results evaluation of course teaching. We present the process analysis approach of quality management as applied to physics teaching and show that it can be very effective for improving our understanding and performance of the physics teaching process at the college level. We describe the application of quality concepts and tools such as the plan-do-study-act method for establishing course goals and procedures, for properly executing the process, identifying, taking and analyzing performance measurements and for identifying improvement opportunities in physics teaching activities.