In this podcast, I interview Kevin Cahill, President of the Deming Institute. Kevin is the grandson of Dr. W. Edwards Deming and has great insight into the teachings of Dr. Deming.
David discusses "Education as a System" and using the four parts of Deming's "System of Profound Knowledge" to make a systemic change to the current education system. He talks about the "aim" and "product" of the education system. "What are we trying to accomplish?" "Are we just trying to improve test scores or are we trying to teach kids to think?"
This is the first podcast for the Langford Learning Experience. Background and information about David P. Langford.
In this episode, I interview Nick Garvin, President of Stackup. Nick describes the development of Stackup. Since recording this episode Stackup has been bought by GG4L and is now a part of their offering.
David shares the challenges he faced as an educator in Sitka Alaska, his introduction to the teachings Dr. W. Edwards Deming, and his work with the Leander Independent School District where they have been applying Dr. Deming’s principles since 1992
Monta Akin, Assistant Superintendent for Leander Independent School District in Leander, Texas. She was first introduced to Deming when she came across the PBS series "Quality or Else" featuring David Langford. What caught her attention was his Deming-based systematic approach to education, creating passion in students by engaging them in the practice of improvement.
Kevin Cahill, Executive Director of The W. Edwards Deming Institute® and David Langford, CEO of Langford Learning, Inc., introduce The Deming in Education Initiative. Kevin and David share how The Deming in Education Initiative was conceived, the impact of the Deming Philosophy on education, and where the Initiative is going in the future.
David explores ways to get started in employing the Deming philosophy in education. In many instances this requires an "out of body experience"; stop playing the blame game, stop being a victim. He tells us to stop worrying about the bigger system and start optimizing the performance of the group, which you have influence over.
In the past, I believed most educators understood the inherent differences between extrinsic and intrinsic motivation, and valued the latter over the former. However, this does not seem to be the case. Pay-for-grades, gold stars, student-of-the-month programs and attendance rewards are all too prevalent extrinsic motivators used to push students to do a better job. I’ve found an overwhelming amount of evidence that these schemes do not work in the long…
I stared at the stack of bus discipline reports on the corner of my desk. Well, there goes my day, I thought. Another day of trying to translate the bus driver’s comments in a way that makes sense to misbehaving elementary school students. Another day of listening to explanations and excuses from students. Another day of knowing that nothing I do seems to change behavior and make the problems go away.
