Unscrambling the quality egg: a qualitative audit process to identify the learning needs of adults and enhance networks in learning organizations and community settings

This paper: raises questions about the appropriateness of quality systems for adult learning premised on product-based, quantitative methods of learning; outlines a technique that relies on interviews conducted on site and in context in teaching centres and campuses of larger learning organisations as well as community owned and managed learning organisations; confirms the advantages of hearing and feeding back what adults say about the quality of their learning, anticipating its complexity and diversity in context; identifies some shortcomings of quality assurance methods which presuppose that learning is undertaken by individual consumers subject to standard learning treatments in identical and comparable settings devoid of vocational, organisational or community context; and anticipates the need to encourage qualitatively different expertise amongst staff responsible for quality systems which goes beyond 'number crunching' ability and expertise in technical or formal compliance. Finally a summary of the 'qualitative audit' process is given.

The volume of collected papers is indexed at TD/TNC 66.434, individual papers are indexed from TD/TNC 66.435 to TD/TNC 66.461 and a collection of Powerpoint presentations from the conference may be found at TD/TNC 66.462. Show less