By Sarah Hartman and Alyson E. Lischka, MTEP Research Hub members
Throughout the year, MTEP members have asked for more information about change ideas undertaken by other teams—MTEP members want to learn from each other. The MTEP leadership heard this request! We are excited to present two new resources available to MTEP teams: a PDSA Cycle Database and Exemplar PDSA Cycles. Both are available in the Files area of the MTEP Main Groups.io space.
The PDSA cycle database spreadsheet includes information about other MTEP teams’ PDSA cycle topics and how they address these ideas. In addition, Exemplar PDSA cycles are an anonymized group of PDSA cycles representing effective use of PDSA cycles. We hope that presenting these resources to the larger MTEP community will help MTEP members learn from and interact with one another.
The database currently features five headings: Identifier, Change Idea Topic, WHAT is the Problem?, HOW is the Problem Addressed?, and Year Submitted. The MTEP Research Hub compiled information from every team’s submitted PDSA cycles to write the content in each heading.
We drew the change idea topics from the Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators Standards for Preparing Secondary Teachers of Mathematics as well as themes present across multiple sites. The Change Idea Topic column tags each PDSA cycle with the primary themes of each cycle, such as recruitment and retention. Users can sort the database by change idea topic to jump to the strategies you are most interested in. For example, many teams are working on recruitment and retention, but in different ways.
More information about how each team is working on their change idea topic is included in the WHAT is the Problem? and HOW is the Problem Addressed? columns. The WHAT is the Problem? column presents more specific indicators about the nature of the PDSA cycles. Often, these indicators were taken from the title and descriptions of the PDSA cycles and represent the goal of the cycle itself. These range from promoting equitable teaching practices to designing book clubs to developing recruitment strategies.
Next, the HOW is the Problem Addressed? column provides the most specific information about each PDSA cycle’s contents, specifically what approach the team took to address the problem at hand. Year Submitted indicates when the MTEP research team received each PDSA cycle.
The MTEP leadership team encourages NIC members to use PDSA cycles effectively to support NIC’s transformation work. In prior newsletters we have described how the Mississippi Team has published one of their PDSA cycles, how PDSA cycles work together with Driver Diagrams, and how PDSA cycles can capture continuous improvement. Now, we are providing exemplar PDSA cycles to further clarify effective uses of PDSA cycles.
We include a variety of types of PDSA cycles with various change ideas and recording structures. This way, the larger MTEP community can draw on the unique features of each cycle to improve their team’s work. For example, some teams use interactive drive links (indicated by the [link removed] notation) to make their PDSA cycle accessible to many members of their team. We encourage team leaders to consider which format and processes work best for your team.
The database and exemplars are intended to be a useful compilation of topics the broader MTEP community is working towards. We hope that this resource will provide ideas for your team as you continue transformation efforts.
Note that we have anonymized this resource to be in accordance with our IRB permissions. If a team finds a PDSA cycle they would like to learn more about, the leader of that team can reach out to their change coach with the identifier number and more information about that PDSA cycle can be gathered. Revisions to the database—such as showing which cycles are connected to each other and describing any measures used—are coming soon. Reach out to Alyson Lischka if there is more information you would like to see included in the PDSA Cycle Database.