In response to yesterday's post on teaching, Matt Bodie expressed an interest in knowing more about what was behind this tweet: "organizing my students into teams and creating a Quality Circle."

I discovered quality circles in education through Eric Orts. See Eric W. Orts, Quality Circles in Law Teaching, 47 J. Legal Educ. 425 (1997). Eric borrowed the idea from industry, and he is not the only educator to use the concept. He describes quality circles as follows:

The idea of quality circles in teaching derives from Japanese management techniques to increase workers' motivation and productivity. Quality circles are widely used by businesses throughout the world. They elicit employees' views "to determine how to improve quality, increase production, improve working conditions, and reduce costs." They are especially helpful in non-profit organizations given the absence of direct economic feedback.

Quality circles in teaching substitute students for employees. As quality circles in business encourage workers to take responsibility for improving the performance of the enterprise, so quality circles in teaching ask students to take responsibility for their own learning in the classroom.

In my post on evaluations, I endorsed the idea: "By using a quality circle, you can create your own system of reflective feedback. No need to wait for the law school administration to implement a whole new system of evaluations."

I used a quality circle once, shortly after Eric's article was published, and it seemed to work well. I was inspired to go back to the idea this semester because I am trying out a number of new ideas in my Business Associations course. (If you would like to see the syllabus, go here. As I have noted in prior posts, this is the syllabus I created with the help of counselors from BYU's Center for Teaching and Learning. Lots of useful information on that website, if you were interested.)

The nuts and bolts, according to Eric (with some commentary by me):

• "At the beginning of the term, announce that a quality circle will be used to provide feedback about your teaching, the classroom experience, and student performance in class. Ask for a handful of students to volunteer for the quality circle as a service to other students. Or ask the class to hold an election."

I announced the idea via email and asked for five volunteers. My email read in part, "Unfortunately, I cannot pay you for your advice, nor will I bump up your grade. The only credit for participating, therefore, is the knowledge that you will be influencing the development of the course. And some fun conversations. And perhaps some good cheese, if you catch me at the right time of day." In response, I had 15 volunteers, and I ended up choosing seven "from a hat."

• "Volunteers should be willing to devote about an hour each week to the task. If you take class participation into account in grading, it is important to emphasize that participation in the quality circle will not be considered. This would inhibit frank discussion in quality circle meetings and would be unfair to other students."

We have planned to meet each Monday afternoon during the semester. I asked the students to devote an hour per week to the Quality Circle. My hope is that we can do the meeting in about half an hour, and they can use the other time to discuss the class with their classmates. While I am eager for feedback from the students, one of my secret hopes is that these conversations will allow members of the Quality Circle to explain the structure of the class to other students, thus giving the entire class a better understanding of the pedagogical motivations for class activities.

• "Before volunteers are selected, you may want to announce that you would prefer a diverse group of students. Indicate which interests you wish to have represented. At Michigan, for example, I asked an African-American student who happened to ask a question after class and another student who expressed an early interest in the details of the final exam to volunteer."

I know a number of students in my class because I taught them in first-year Contracts. After seeing the 15 volunteers that I received in a class of 80 or so students, I wasn't too concerned about not having a diverse Quality Circle, so I asked my secretary to select the students because she didn't know any of them. Four women, three men. And at least one University of Utah undergraduate ...

• "Once the members of the quality circle are identified, circulate a list to the rest of the class. The students in my group at Michigan gave their e-mail addresses as well as telephone numbers. E-mail can often take the place of meetings."

I put the Quality Circle students' names in the syllabus, and email is now ubiquitous, so I don't think any of the students in the class will have trouble contacting the Quality Circle.

• "Frequency and duration of quality circle meetings will vary according to the availability and preferences of teacher and students. My group at Michigan met once every three weeks for forty-five minutes to an hour, ending for the semester several weeks before final exams. I handled the predictable flurry of last-minute questions either in class or by e-mail."

So Eric's group met less than he is recommending. As noted above, we are planning to meet once a week. If we don't need that many meetings, we can cut back. I figure it's easier to cut back than to add meetings, and I really don't like long meetings.

• "In the quality circle meetings, focus discussion on your teaching and the dynamics of the classroom. You might touch on the following topics: classroom ecology and culture, readings and assignments, discussion of cases and problems, your communication and movement in class, problematic students, evaluations, grading, and exams."

All good ideas. I am not sure you need a checklist. In my one prior experience, I just asked students for comments, and took their comments seriously without getting defensive. That emboldened them to make more comments, and we just took it from there. By the way, I think the point about not getting defensive cannot be overemphasized. If you have good reasons for structuring your class the way you do, explain those to the students, but don't take offense if they don't share your enthusiasm for teams or multiple choice exams. If you get defensive, you will shut down the conversation and deprive yourself of some useful insights.

• "After each quality circle meeting, I take a few minutes at the beginning of the next class to report the results of the meeting and then ask quality circle members and the rest of the class for comments. Giving your recollection of the meetings shows you listened and took your students seriously. A more daring alternative is to ask student representatives to report on quality circle meetings."

I had forgotten about the "more daring alternative." I actually like that idea. Last time, I did the reporting, and students seemed to appreciate that I was putting some effort into the class, not just mailing it in.

Finally, Eric lists some benefits of Quality Circles:

• Quality circles give constructive criticism of your teaching when you can do something about it.
• Quality circles let you counter students' criticisms.
• Quality circles let you explain where you're coming from.
• Quality circles help with diversity issues.
• Quality circles give you a mechanism for criticizing your students.
• Quality circles give students a sense of ownership of the class.

Good stuff. Useful outcomes.

If you like the idea, you might also want to check out Gerald F. Hess, Student Involvement in Improving Law Teaching and Learning, 67 UMKC L. Rev. 343 (1998), Hess refers to the groups as "Student Advisory Teams." The Hess article is longer and includes much more on the underlying educational theory.

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