European Centre for Modern Languages

Concepts of Quality

Frank Heyworth

What do we  mean by quality?


 Frame1.GIF Try to define “quality” for yourself.
________ Quality is ____________________“

You probably found it difficult to get a satisfactory general definition which isn’t circular, such as “quality means good”. But you could certainly be more specific if you needed to define a quality car or restaurant. This book is about managing quality in language education, so we need to look at quality as a specific, operational concept. This means being able (1) to define “quality in language education”; (2) to describe it in objective operational terms; (3) to identify the processes by which good language education can be produced; (4) to establish procedures for observing it and assessing it; and (5) to look at the issues involved in accrediting it.


 Frame2.GIF What do you mean by:

        • a good lesson?
        • a good teacher?
        • a successful course?
        • an efficient school?
        • a fulfilling educational experience?

To do this involves establishing criteria and setting standards which enable us to assess all of these in a reliable and principled way.

þDefinitions – "criteria"- principles by which we judge quality (for example, criteria for judging a public transport system would probably include safety, punctuality and comfort)
"standards" - specific, observable, achievable, measurable targets for making criteria operational (for example, a transport system could set a standard for punctuality - 98% of trains, buses etc. will arrive within 5 minutes of the announced time)

Quality issues in language education

“ Are we doing the right things?” and “Are we doing things right?” are key twin questions in the application of quality procedures in any domain of activity.

In the field of language education there is a need to have a clear and coherent idea of what are the “right things” that we are doing, and procedures for checking that we are “doing things right”. This means that among many issues, the following must be addressed:

  • What criteria can be applied to the decision-making process to ensure that curricula take account of relevant factors?
  • What are the models against which the quality of teaching / learning activities are to be measured?
  • What are the processes by which teaching / learning is planned, organised and delivered?
  • How are these models and processes described and communicated in such a way that those involved are aware of them and contribute to their definition and development?
  • What are the responsibilities with regard to quality of the different actors - teachers, learners, administrators, parents etc.- participating in the learning activities?
  • What are the procedures for observing and getting feedback on the teaching  / learning activities?
  • What are the procedures for quality control? Who undertakes it? How can the results of the quality control be fed back into the planning and delivery processes?

In order to address issues of this kind we need to examine how quality assurance and control procedures are typically applied to teaching in general and to language education in particular, and to compare these with the approaches commonly used in other fields.  This may suggest the application of different approaches to language learning and teaching activities.

þDefinitions
"Quality assurance" - the procedures and steps taken by an institution to make sure that it provides products or services of a high quality
"Quality control" - the procedures used to check and assess the quality of the products or services.
Quality assurance is always internal to the institution. Quality control can either be internal or external.


Quality Assurance and Quality Control in general

The concepts and methods which are the basis of quality procedures were developed, mainly in the United States and Japan in industrial environments during and after the Second World War. The aim was to make production processes more efficient by reducing faults and errors - one of the watchwords was “zero tolerance of error” - and to produce goods of consistently high, and standardised quality. In order to achieve this, a number of procedures and principles were developed:

  • a need to analyse the function of the finished product  and of the constituent parts
  • careful design of the components to do what they were intended to do – in other words, establishing functional criteria
  • clear standards for the performance of the finished products.

It was realised that improved quality was not to be achieved through technical progress alone. Especially in Japan it was emphasised that the responsibility for the quality of the product should lie with those producing it, not with outside inspectors, and that people worked best if they formed teams able to organise their own work flexibly and intelligently. “Quality circles”, small teams who were encouraged to provide suggestions and to take quality initiatives were devised as a way of promoting the desired approach and attitude. It was stressed that correcting mistakes was expensive and time-consuming and that therefore the aim was to “get it right the first time, every time”.

The concept of quality management is also applied to the provision of services as well as the production of goods. Since these are not tangible in the same way as goods, the idea of customer satisfaction has been introduced and quality has been equated with this - slogans such as “quality means meeting customer expectations” or “quality means exceeding customer expectations” have been used. In the provision of services the “contract” between the provider and the consumer of services is a relational one and the quality of the service is often defined through the keeping of promises which are expressed in the form of “customer charters” or service guarantees. For example, a railway promises that if its trains do not arrive within x minutes or the announced time the customers will have part of their fare re-imbursed; or a hotel chain will give guarantees about the speed or range of services provided.  An essential element of quality in services is to establish a clear description of what is offered - “say what you do / do what you say you do”.

The idea of “quality” as an important feature of the production of goods and the provision of services has led to its being an important factor in the management of companies and other organisations. The procedures are divided into “quality assurance”, the steps which need to be taken to produce goods or provide services of high quality; and “quality control”, the procedures devised to check that the aimed for or promised quality is achieved. The idea of quality has been introduced into the public domain, with governments promising specific standards in the provision of health services or education.

There have also been attempts to define all working relationships as being influenced by client satisfaction, with every person in an organisation having clients, either internal or external, whose needs s/he must satisfy, and providers, who provide services which enable people to carry out their tasks efficiently.

Various organisations have been set up to establish standards, either general or for a particular activity, and to validate that the standards are being kept. The International Standards Organisation (ISO) has a series of norms - for example, ISO 9000, which is applied to service industries, including a range of schools of different kinds. The ISO certification checks that there are proper procedures for ensuring quality standards and these are consistently applied, but makes no judgement of the quality of the product or service itself. In an educational context, it would check that there were procedures for observing and assessing the quality of the teaching, but it would not make an assessment of the work in the classroom.


Frame6.GIF
Think of every day transactions and activities you carry out.


What criteria do you apply to judging good quality and low quality in goods and services?

What standards do you set?

Quality Assurance and Quality Control in educational contexts

In state education the management of quality has not generally been explicit and it has often been unsystematic. In many countries the responsibility for quality control has lain with ministry of education inspectors whose jobs have involved both the inspection of schools and their accreditation; in some countries they have also inspected individual teachers, grading them in ways which influenced their salaries and careers. In recent years the emphasis of inspectors’ work has been more on advising schools and on promoting good practice than on control and sanctions.

The procedures for internal quality assurance have varied widely. Typically there has been relatively little close observation of the teaching activities and in many environments it has been possible for teachers to work alone in the classroom for years once they have gone through their probationary period. In some schools there is provision for observation of classes by heads of department or for peer observation, but this is far from being generalised and is more common in private education than in state systems.

In recent years, nevertheless, there has been increased concern with the need for schools to be accountable for standards and quality and in a number of countries schools have been encouraged to produce “school programmes” - statements of their aims and the means by which they plan to achieve them. A small number of institutions have obtained the ISO 9001 certificate.

In the field of private language schools, more concerned with the need to find and keep students in competition with other schools, there has been considerable development of inspection schemes to check and accredit good practice. The British Council administers the English in Britain accreditation system and has been carrying out inspections for both private and further education institutions. There are a number of national associations promoting quality through accreditation,  granting “quality labels” for schools; SOUFFLE for French, CEELE for Spanish, the Hungarian Association of Language Schools, QUEST for schools in Romania are just a few examples of these initiatives. EAQUALS (the European Association for Quality Language Services) has an inspection system based on a code of practice with charters for learners, staff and for information and has accredited schools in 11 different countries and for a wide range of languages.

The Application of Quality Assurance and Quality Control in Language Teaching and Learning

It is in no way the intention to suggest that quality models from industrial and commercial contexts can be applied en bloc to educational activities, nor that achievement of the aims of language teaching can be measured by a simple criterion of customer satisfaction.  Nevertheless, language education, like most fields of activity, must satisfy the needs of its “clientele” - learners, parents, employers, society in general in state education; those who are purchasing language courses in the private sector. Therefore it is useful to take account of experience outside the language teaching field and to assess how far it can - or cannot - be usefully applied.


Frame7.GIF  
Who are the “clients” in the educational institutions you work in?

Distinguish between “primary clients” (usually those who pay) and “secondary clients” (other stakeholders in the educational process).

Language learning and teaching are complex matters and cannot be reduced to a single, simplistic model of quality.  They are influenced by the personalities of learners and teachers and by the relationships between them. The content is also defined by what is happening in the world around them and the topics they choose to discuss. Nevertheless it is important to aim for high standards and to set criteria by which the quality of teaching/learning operations will be judged.  Factors which might be taken into account in setting quality criteria include:

  • The basic educational principles and beliefs underlying school systems.

Is there a consensus on the aims of language teaching and learning?  The Common European Framework of Reference is an attempt to describe systematically these aims in the field of language education.  . It is deliberately not prescriptive - “We do NOT set out to tell practitioners what to do, or how to do it ...”, but at the same time clearly sets out broad principles. The Framework “ supports methods which help learners build up attitudes, knowledge and skills they need to become more independent in thought and action and be more responsible and co-operative in relation to other people".

Frame3.GIF

Frame4.GIF

North, Lasnier, Morfeld, Borneto & Spàth in the “Quality Guide for the evaluation and design of language programmes” (A Guide for the Evaluation and Design of Quality Language learning and teaching Programmes and Materials, European Commission 2000) etc. propose a number of quality principles, shown in the table below:

Principles

Sub-principles

Relevance

Learner centredness
Accountability
Appropriateness

Transparency

Clarity of Aims
Clarity about Achievement
Clarity of Presentation
Clarity of Rationale

Reliability

Consistency
Internal Coherence
Methodological Integrity
Linguistic Integrity
Textual Integrity
Practicality

Attractiveness

User friendliness
Interactivity
Variety
Sensitivity

Flexibility

Individualisation
Adaptability

Generativeness (i.e. does the learning generate further learning or development?)

Transferability
Integration
Cognitive development

Participation

Involvement
Personal Interest
Partnership

Efficiency

Cost effectiveness
Ergonomy

Socialisation

Social skills
Intercultural awareness

  • A process-oriented model of the organisation of language teaching / learning

Is there a clearly stated curriculum with clear level descriptors? Is it applied with suitable resources? Is there appropriate assessment to place learners in groups, to evaluate progress and to certify achievement? Are there systems for observation of teaching and for getting feedback from learners so that the efficiency of the process can be monitored?

  • A client-centred view of teaching / learning

 This will involve analysis both of the uses to which learners will put the language they have learnt and of their learning needs and preferences. It will also analyse other stakeholders in the language education system - parents, potential employers, the needs of the society etc. The system will include procedures, such as questionnaires or focus groups, to ascertain clients’ satisfaction with the learning activities.

  • Criteria focussing on the management of human resources involved in the teaching / learning process

The achievement of quality in industrial and service fields Are there proper opportunities for the training and development of teachers? Are there arrangements for peer observation and reflection on the teaching process? Are there appropriate resources available?

  • Evaluation of the results of the teaching / learning activities

Are objectives set for progress and achievement? Are these objectives attained? Are the results in public examinations satisfactory?
Institutions involved in language teaching will need to take factors such as these into account in order to define the criteria they will apply to assessing whether they are doing things right and whether they meet the standards they set for themselves.


Frame5.GIF What model(s) do you, explicitly or implicitly, apply to assessing the quality of language education in your institution?

Is this model relevant?

What standards do you apply?

Customer satisfaction

 

Educational principles

 

Efficient process management

 

Evaluation of results

 

Focus on human resources

 
Table of Contents
Français