Eliminating Waste In Teaching: Timeless Lessons for Improving Teaching and Training

by Lillian Moller Gilbreth, Dr. Bob Emiliani

Dr. Lillian Moller Gilbreth (1878-1972) was a principal leader of the early 20th century Scientific Management movement. Recognized internationally for her work in industrial psychology and industrial engineering, her work shaped the development of Toyota’s management system and its derivative, Lean management. Eliminating Waste in Teaching presents, for the first time, Dr. Gilbreth’s 1915 doctoral dissertation exactly as it was written. Teachers at all levels, educational administrators, and education policy makers, as well as corporate trainers and consultants will enjoy this book and be inspired to develop dozens of practical new ideas for improving teaching and training.Dr. Gilbreth’s analyses and prescriptions for improving teaching are as relevant today as they were then. She successfully bridges gaps between the improvement methods used by industry to improve work and applies these same methods to improving teaching. Readers will marvel at the depth of Dr. Gilbreth’s insights and her unceremonious exposing of the truth.Commentary and analysis by Professor Bob Emiliani, who has been applying Lean principles and practices to eliminate waste in teaching for 20 years, brings the story up to date and contributes a chapter on his most recent work improving teaching.

370 pages, Paperback

Published November 4, 2019

About the author

Lillian Evelyn Moller Gilbreth (May 24, 1878 – January 2, 1972) was an American psychologist and industrial engineer. One of the first working female engineers holding a Ph.D., she is arguably the first true industrial/organizational psychologist. She and her husband Frank Bunker Gilbreth, Sr. were efficiency experts who contributed to the study of industrial engineering in fields such as motion study and human factors. The books Cheaper by the Dozen and Belles on Their Toes (written by their children Ernestine and Frank Jr.) are the story of their family life with their twelve children, and describe how they applied their interest in time and motion study to the organization and daily activities of such a large family.

Reviews

[heidi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes creepily prescient, still very relevant to modern readers.