The first finding revealed that elementary and middle-level teachers acknowledge that using the PDSA for analyzing data is time-consuming, but it is an effective model to identify learning goals and plan future instruction. The participants in the study agreed that the PDSA is an effective, but time-consuming, model. Most participants in the study also agreed that it can be used to identify learning goals and plan instruction. During the interviews, Teacher 1 stated, “The cycle, it’s pretty good…it takes a lot of preparation to make sure you have all of your steps together and all the materials together, but the cycle to me is not strenuous at all”. In addition, Teacher 1 said, “My biggest obstacle,
especially when I started, was if I was going to do it weekly, bi-weekly or whether I would do it as a unit because it’s so time-consuming”. Teacher 1 shared that the PDSA holds teachers accountable and helps them to do some things differently to improve the way they teach. When I observed Teacher 1’s data wall, the learning goals were posted, and we discussed the learning goals. Teacher 1 mentioned the following:
I will have it written on the board. I’ll introduce it to the kids and say our objective or learning target for the week. Then, I will model the concept to give the students an idea of what we are going to be learning.
Teacher 2 said, “Personally, I feel that the PDSA is an excellent framework that can be used for continuous improvement and student learning. It is structured in a manner to prepare every student at each level of academic success”. During the interview,
Teacher 2 also added one obstacle within PDSA “is that it is difficult to be creative while being conscientious about time management.” Teacher 2 also expressed that “the PDSA system will aid teachers in perfecting their craft, which in turn, will enhance student performance”. During the data wall, document analysis, Teacher 2 had learning targets posted on the bulletin board and shared that “with the data wall I try to change out the target on a weekly basis”. Teacher 2 also added, “I basically go over the learning targets orally at the onset of the instructional lesson and then I post the learning targets on the bulletin board for continual view by the students”.
Teacher 8 indicated that the PDSA was a way to hold teachers accountable and monitor student progress toward learning goals. Teacher 5 said the following:
It keeps us on track with our students’ progress, and it helps you to see where you’re going. It’s like a map that you might use to help students achieve and master the standards; the PDSA helps you see how far you are away from mastery.
Teacher 3 suggested that the PDSA is worth implementing in class even with limitations. Teacher 3 stated,
It’s effective, and anything that’s effective is worthwhile implementing in the classroom. So, my feeling about implementing it is good. It works, and even with the limitations, it works because you are constantly involving students, but you are also constantly assessing as you go, so it helps with formative assessments. Teacher 3 also added information to show that the PDSA was used to target learning goals. Teacher 3 stated, “Anything to see where they are and where they need to be, that’s always an effective strategy”. They also said that it “could be time-consuming, but the process is good. It’s effective; it involves the students, but overall one of the
limitations is the whole time it takes to address everything”. Later, in the interview, Teacher 3 also mentioned the following:
I think the number one obstacle is time; because you know as a classroom teacher, you have standards to cover; you have a pacing guide to follow; and sometimes even though you do your best to help the students to get it the first time, they don’t always. So, going back through the PDSA can interfere with the time that you need to move on and cover whatever you need to cover. I think time would be the biggest limitation when it comes to PDSA.
During the final stage of the interview, one of Teacher 3’s statement was “So personally, even though I keep coming back to the whole issue of time; that is a real issue. Even though time is a factor, the PDSA is still effective”. In addition, Teacher 3’s final statement was “it works, it’s effective, and it sort of gets everybody on the same page. Also, when the students see that everybody is using this, they’re okay with it, they’re
comfortable with it”. Teacher 3’s wall showed that the PDSA was being actively used. When we discussed the posted Learning Target, Teacher 3 made the following statement:
During instruction, I always make reference one, to the standards, because that’s where the learning targets come from; we look at the standards and then each child, of course, would have a smart goal or whatever they hope to achieve. Whatever percentage score they expect to get from whatever, whether it’s a unit test or the overall grade for the quarter. Whatever target they set we would constantly refer to it.
Another participant shared how she used PDSA to identify goals in her class. Teacher 4 said, “with the Plan, Do, Study, Act, I meet with the students after a test to look at the objectives that they missed and then I will also have a student tutor meet with them in small groups”. Teacher 4 also referred time as a factor while discussing obstacles about the use of the PDSA. Teacher 4 stated, “in the beginning, I mean, time is always a factor because we just don’t have enough time, not even enough teaching time”. She also suggested that students are motivated when they know what to expect, so setting goals are important. Teacher 4 said, “You tell your students, I expect you to make 90 percent, and most of them will try to make 90 percent, or they will say I didn’t make it this time but next time I will”. Teacher 4 added:
I feel confident about using the PDSA but you know when you go around the whole PDSA cycle, that stuff is kind of time-consuming, but I do it, and sometimes it won’t be in a circle, it might be in a line or on a pie chart, it’s not always that circular, Plan, Do, Study, Act.
Based on my interviews, the teachers perceive the PDSA as an effective way to monitor student progress toward learning continuously. They agreed that it requires a lot of time to go through the PDSA cycle, but it is still worth using in their classrooms. The effectiveness of the model and limited time emerged repeatedly throughout the
interviews. The document analysis consistently showed that teachers were using their data walls to identify and discuss learning targets with students so that they can move forward with instruction. I noted that all teachers had learning goals posted on their data walls. The participants all also had standards and objectives posted on their data walls as part of their Plan. Teacher 1 explained how they discussed the learning targets by stating the following:
I just let them know and say that’s our plan, that’s what we want to accomplish, so that’s how I do it. I just let them know, and if they have questions, I
accommodate that and sometimes I even write it to make sure they all understand what the objective is and I ask is everybody okay with that, do you understand what we need to do, and once they say yeah then we move on.
During the document analysis questionnaire another participant, Teacher 2 said, “I basically go over what the teacher will do and what the students will do with the teacher”. When I observed the data wall, I could see a bulleted list to show what the teacher and student will do. The statement from the interview and the evidence from the data wall observation indicated that the teachers use the PDSA to plan future instruction also.
The first finding in this study suggested that teachers in this study believe that the PDSA is very effective, but going through the cycle takes a lot of time to go through the
cycle. Most teachers believed that using the PDSA helps teachers provide structure by setting learning goals with students. Allowing students to set learning goals is supported by Abrams et al. (2016) and Mandinach (2012), who suggested as good practice for