Sultan Qaboos University

Collage of Education
Instructional & Learning Technology Department
Quality Assurance Course




Done By:
Ayda Al.Harrasi 93584
Sheikha Al Rashdi 90604
Aysha Baomar 92100





Research About
The Quality of A course
"Science course for grade 10 in Taimsa School"
Overview
Our proposal is aimed to measure the quality of Science course for grade 10 in Taimsa
School for the Basic Studies (1-10). This school located in Nizwa city. Students from
grade 1 to 10 are studding in this school. It is a school in rare area so the numbers of
students on it small. We choose to implement six sigma model to evaluate the quality
of this course and use it to improve the performance of the student. We choose this
model because all educational institutions require an innovative supporting tool which
helps in improving the quality of processes pertaining to the important functions
particularly teaching, research and service. "Teaching in any area involves multiple
activities such as course plan design, curriculum development, learning objectives,
laboratory exercises and student learning assessment etc."
1
The Six Sigma
methodology can be utilized in all the above listed activities to improve the quality of
teaching. To implement this model we need to follow five main steps which are:
define, measure, analysis, improvement and control. In define step we define the
schools purpose and scope are well defined during this step. To identify problems,
form a team, identify customers, and identify required outputs, to prioritize students'
requirements, document the current process and complete requirement definition. The
second step is to rank the potential causes, to identify what is to be measure, collect
data, and determine process capability. In the third step, the collected data in the
measure phase have been examined to generate a ranking list of the sources of
variation, to identify the root cause of problems, to determine brainstorm ideas for
processing students improvements and determine which improvements have the
greatest impacts on students' requirements. The forth step is to "identify options for
solutions which can be useful for the identified problems during the analysis step.
Recommendation and implementation, the impact of assessment, finalize the
implementation plan, implement the approved changes and the solutions are the most
important objectives of this step"
2
. Finally, the fifth step is to establish the key metrics
is to develop the control strategy, celebrate and communicate success, implement the
control plan, measure and communicate improvements.
In our research we evaluate three parts of quality which are personnel,
Curriculum/training and environment. We choose to evaluate this course because it is
a basic course for the students, it is related to the most of the future specialization and
it is related to more than one part of school environment and more than one
curriculum. The objectives for this research are:
- To improve the teacher teaching skills and abilities.
- To enhance the quality of science curriculum.
- To prepare suitable environment for teaching science curriculum.

Personnel
We will assess in this section the personal, course teacher and lab technician. We will
assess the personal in term of her leadership, ability to take decisions, ability to
manage the school and her relations with the teachers, students and parents. After we

1
Brewer, P., Feriel, T., Davig, W. and Spain, J. Quality in the Classroom. Quality Progress, (2002),
Vol. 35, Issue 1, pp 67-68.


2 Kaliym, A., Islam.: Developing Learning the Six Sigma way., (2003).

collected the information by the interview and questioner with the course instructor
and some students in grade 10 we find that Miss. Raya Khalifa Al.Harrasi As for the
principle she cares about motivate teachers and cares much about teachers absence.
She provides teachers with appropriate budget that is determined for courses
materials, media and equipment. In addition, she is very kind, helpful and always
smile and she controls the school. She has very good relations with the students'
parents and she makes an appointment table for the parents to come and ask about
their sons/daughters. We can say that she did her job well and she is a great leader!
Lets talk about teacher "Miss. Radhya Al.busaidi", the one who is responsible for
transferring the knowledge. Grade 10s teacher is active, use different voice tone, use
the board actively with drawing and multiple colors. She tries to motivate learners.
She manages the class but as a result of short lesson, she did not give students time to
receive, interpret and analysis new information. Also, when they made mistakes she
give them immediate feedback instead of use an educational way which is to give
them a chance to discover the correct way.
There is one lab technician to help the science teacher by provide the instruments,
media and equipment for the experiments in the lab. She can manage the students in
the lab and she assure that the students follow the Instructions of Safety and Security
in the lab. She knew how to do the first aid if there is any accident in the lab. Also,
she attends many workshops to learn about the new in her job (lifelong learning!).

Curriculum:
We will evaluate the science course curriculum in terms of appropriateness and
effectiveness of goals, objectives, teaching methods and recourses for grade 10
students. The main goal of the curriculum is recognize the types of energy and natural
phenomena and their effects on the environment. The student after the end of this
course will be able to: list the developments of the steam engine, distinguish between
distance and displacement, defines the relationship between the speed of the body and
the kinetic energy, analyzes systems cosmic, list the environmental impacts caused by
human activity. We conduct the information about curriculum by the chick list and we
found that: The teacher use Project-based learning as a new teaching and learning
strategy. The teachers use different technologies to support teaching and learning
process like overhead projector in classroom and smart board in the lab ,but they do
not use simulation software or instructional game. The school library provides several
scientific journals related to curriculum topics. The pictures, illustrations and
diagrams which included in the curriculum are display clearly.
This is a sample of the tool:
criteria yes no
1 Using different technologies for teaching
the curriculum

2 The pictures, illustrations and diagrams
are display clearly

3 The objectives are measurable and clear
4 Using stimulation in doing experiments




Environment:
We will evaluate the school environment in term of suitability to learning, safety,
organization of the environment and qualified equipment. The learning environment
in the school includes students who approximately come from same culture. The
school environment is suitable for teaching science subject for grade 10 as we collect
from the school. We need to consider on to main parts of the school to ensure the
quality of the environment for teaching the science course which are the classroom
environment and the laboratory environment. When we consider on the classroom
environment we found that the organization of the classroom is change depending on
the type of activities, content and teaching methods. The classroom size is suitable
and large enough to include the 20 students. In other side when we consider on the
laboratory environment we found it suitable for the students and large enough to
include them. It includes all tools and equipment that students and teachers need when
they do experiments. In addition, the laboratory include safety board that explains the
safety approaches and rules on the laboratory to protect students from any risk that
will happen during the lectures but not all of the students can follow this safety
instructions. Sometimes the learning environment can be other than the classroom and
laboratory; it can be outside the school where students go on discovery trips. There
are clearly used of technology where they are using the internet, laptop and interactive
board on teaching science subjects to rich the student's knowledge.
criteria yes no
1 The environment is suitable for learning
2 the laboratory include safety board
3 the students can follow the safety
instructions in the laboratory

4 The classroom size is suitable and large
enough

5 The laboratory include qualified and
enough equipment


Tools for Assessment:
1. table show the tools we use to do the assessment:
Tools
Variable
Interview Observation Questionnaire Check list
Personnel
Curriculum/
training

Environment
2. Pareto Analysis:
# Problem Causes
1 Teacher didn't give students time to receive, interpret and analysis
new information.
Shortness of the
lesson
Teacher gives students immediate feedback when they made Shortness of the
2 mistakes instead of give them a chance to discover the correct
way.
lesson
3 Not all of the students can follow the safety instructions in the
laboratory.
Lack of training
4 If the technician not in the lab and any accident happened in the
lab the teacher and students can't do all off the first aids
Lack of training
5 The teacher doesn't use the stimulations program to teach the
students the experiments which can't do at the lab especially the
danger experiments.
Lack use of
technology in
teaching
6 Students doesn't use the internet or online encyclopedia to do their
researches.
Lack use of
technology in
teaching

3. Fishbone diagram:
Created by use: ConseptDraw PRO program.
Conclusion:
The evaluation disclosed both the strengths and weaknesses of the science course for
grade 10 program, which can be summarized as follows;
Strengths:
1- The model we choose to follow in assessing the course is suitable.
2- The steps of the model are accuracy and clear to apply
3- We have a general pictures of the main criteria of implementing the model and
this made our work easy!
Weakness:
1- We didn't have enough time to collect the data we want.
2- The sample who fill the questioner didn't represent the research society.
3- The tools we used are needed some improvement. not qualify enough
Recommendation:
According to the weakness we faced during our work we recommend other researcher
to put an original time plan for their work, choose enough and reflection sample and
conduct qualify and clear tools to collect and analyze data.
Visual representation of the process diagram of Quality Assurance:


Sample of Questionnaire:
Click on this link:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1FDpTnU0Dr1buldmY6zKAMfGLMwD2pA7iR8f
MZj1h9Qs/viewform



References
define
Measure
Analysis Improve
Control
Define the problems
and objectives
Develop measurement
tools, standards and
collect data
Determine brainstorm ideas
for students improvements
and which improvements
have the greatest impacts
on students
Develop solution,
probability of success,
cost, and time to
execute

Develop the control strategy,
celebrate and communicate
success, implement the
control plan, measure and
communicate improvements.
Brewer, P., Feriel, T., Davig, W. and Spain, J. Quality in the Classroom.
Quality Progress, (2002), Vol. 35, Issue 1, pp 67-68.


Kaliym, A., Islam.: Developing Learning the Six Sigma way., (2003).