Cycle of Action Research

The diagram below shows a typical cycle of an action research. It is called a PDSA Model. This is taken from the website of Broward County Public Schools Web site on Human Resource Development. For teachers and school heads who are contemplating on doing an action research, the cycle would help them set the pace in the initial steps in conducting action research.



Plan
Determine the need for process improvement
Define the process improvement
Write the plan for process improvement

Do
Implement the process improvement

Study
Study process improvement

Act
Revise the plan for improvement





Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA Model)

- IN-DEPTH
In each phase of the PDSA model, questions you should ask….
Plan
Plan, step 1:
• What are we improving and why?
• What is the current and past level of performance?
Plan, step 2:
• What is the current process and is it flow-chartable?
• Which parts of the process are successful, which parts are not working? Why aren’t they working?
• What critical changes will result in improvement and why do we think so? Then, how will we know if the changes worked?
Plan, step 3:
• What strategies will help us improve and why do we think these strategies will work?
• What resources do we have, do we need?
• What is our timeline? When should we study our interim results and revise the plan?
Do
• How will the improvement process be communicated?
• How will we gain support and build teams?
• How will the improvement process be communicated and made visible to all?
• How will the data be collected and by whom?
Study
• What are the results and how do they compare to past results?
• Did we improve? What worked? What didn’t work? Why not?
• How will we address lack of improvement?
Act
• Based on our Study (above), what changes should be included?
• Who else will benefit from this knowledge?
Go to PLAN, step 1