Some discuss variation principles, and others describe how to use quality improvement tools, such as flowcharts and fishbone diagrams. When reading these articles, one must remember that, when applied to higher education, the TQM process assumes a new livelihood. Many methods and tools do not apply to higher education. Most education quality improvement articles, on the other hand, suffer from not recognizing this transferability problem. To develop a genuine classroom partnership, students must share in the decision-making.
Most articles addressing education improvement efforts begin by justifying their applicability.
These arguments, while sometimes interesting, have little utility for most student readers. Students should either skim these arguments or skip them altogether. One must also recognize that these articles are written by faculty, for faculty. If students at other universities are running their own teams, they are not publishing articles about it. As a result, student readers must remember to question the methods and outcomes that these articles describe.