No Wonder Teaching is Difficult!
World renowned quality guru, W. Edwards Deming used to ask the question, “Who receives directly the product or service that you provide?” In education, the answer is the student. He would then reply, “That is your customer“.
What are the implications of “students as customers?”
Dr. Glasser, in his book The Quality School, also identified students as workers because they are given assignments and activities and are expected to “work on them” and produce learning results.
While this is a common view of most educators, what are the implications of focusing on students as workers?
About 10 years ago, I realized that the student is also the primary product of the school or educational system.
What, if any, impact does looking at the student as the product have for educators?
The complication increases because all three labels are correct. I have challenged thousands of educators to come up with any other group of people that are the customer, the worker and the product in the same system. No one can identify the three roles anywhere, other than education.
It seems that it would serve educators to remind themselves to answer these questions:
- When is the student the customer?
- What does that mean to the instructional process?
- How should student workers be instructed, evaluated, and provided feedback?
- How do you measure and/or what is the measure of student/product success?
- What value is there in answering these questions and keeping all three of these roles in mind?
Please post your comments!
Posted on January 5, 2012, in Bob Hoglund, Education, Elementary Schools, High Schools, Middle Schools, NQEC, School Boards, School Districts, Student Achievement and tagged Baldrige, Bob Hoglund, choosing excellence, Deming, Education, Glasser, Management, The School District of Lee County. Bookmark the permalink. 3 Comments.
I like the way you pose these questions. Like Socrates, as he describes himself as a midwife, they tend to “give birth” to truths that are already there within your audience.
I think you model the teacher that you invite other teachers to become.
Thanks for sharing your wisdom.
Ken
What is interesting about this is how off base this is. While the student is a stakeholder…as are our parents, staff, etc., the real “customer” is the business owner and community (taxpayers) who have entrusted us with their future citizens, their hard earned dollars and, in fact, the future of civilized society. We have a responsibility and an obligation (read duty) to handle that trust with care and pursue excellence for not just the good of individual students, but the future of our communities, nation and world. And now you know the rest of the story
The intent of the post was not to minimize other stakeholders or taxpayers, nor to imply that individual student satisfaction is THE primary goal.
However, it was my intent to say that by recognizing the three roles, educators can more effectively plan effective instruction and assessments which leads to increased student achievement.
Additionally, learning, competence and success are the keys to student satisfaction as customers, workers and products. Tax[payers and other stakeholders can’t win (society) if the students don’t win (learn).