Quality Circles: A Japanese Management Technique for the Classroom.

Abstract

teaching something "new" can try novel, or at least alternative, methods of presenting the classes they must teach. An innovation that college faculty can use?the quality circle?is a technique that has been eminently successful in its applications in Japanese industry. Quality circles are not really new for they have been used in Japan for about twenty years and are just now begin ning to be seen in industry in the United States. But they have been used very little in the college classroom. This paper describes the use of quality circles in three undergraduate courses in general chemistry at The Penn sylvania State University. The literature of business and management is begin ning to grow rapidly in the number of reports of the use of quality circles and several books are also available which deal, at least in part, with the topic. A general