Using the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in Teaching: One Criteria, Several Perspectives

The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA) has influenced the thinking and operations within organizations from all sectors of the American economy. This paper presents the experiences of three faculty members who have used the Criteria for Performance Excellence and the underlying concepts of the MBNQA to enhance the learning experiences of their students. The authors discuss how Dale's Cone of Experience is employed, by means of concrete exercises and experiences, to better leverage the student's ability to understand the abstract concepts. The formal, end-of-term student evaluations indicate that the described approach has led to a higher level of student engagement in the learning process, as evidenced by more abundant and higher-quality feedback to the instructors.