Demystifying PDSA as a Teaching Strategy
by Jama S. Coartney and Eric K. Kaufman -- The Plan, Do, Study, Act (PDSA) Model for Continuous Improvement has been around in one form or another since the 1930s. In the early days, Dr. W. Edwards Deming, an educator and engineer, called it either the Shewhart's cycle or a cycle for learning and improvement . Have you ever heard of PDCA or Plan Do Check Act? In the 1950s, the business world derived PDCA from Deming's lectures and work. In fact, Moen and Norman (2009) note that PDSA was the basis for the Total Quality Management (TQM) framework, still used in business today. Deming, however, preferred that it be called the PDSA Model for Improvement; and so, people in the know tend to use the term PDSA. Why use a PDSA approach in education? Today’s culture calls for data-driven disciplined inquiry; we see examples of this through the introduction of new terms, such as data analytics. As noted by the Deming institute, PDSA can provide a useful tool in...