{"id":2643,"date":"2025-12-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carnegie25live.wpenginepowered.com\/?p=2643"},"modified":"2026-01-28T09:20:40","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T17:20:40","slug":"basics-of-pdsa-cycles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.carnegiefoundation.org\/basics-of-pdsa-cycles\/","title":{"rendered":"Basics of PDSA Cycles"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"gb-container gb-container-9f092ff3\">\n<div class=\"gb-container gb-container-f749780f\">\n\n<figure class=\"gb-block-image gb-block-image-76d64e57\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"575\" height=\"720\" class=\"gb-image gb-image-76d64e57\" src=\"https:\/\/www.carnegiefoundation.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Basic-PDSA-Cycles.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"Basic-PDSA-Cycles\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.carnegiefoundation.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Basic-PDSA-Cycles.jpg 575w, https:\/\/www.carnegiefoundation.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Basic-PDSA-Cycles-240x300.jpg 240w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 575px) 100vw, 575px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-fsb-flexible-spacer fsb-flexible-spacer\"><div class=\"fsb-flexible-spacer__device fsb-flexible-spacer__device--lg\" style=\"height:64px\"><\/div><div class=\"fsb-flexible-spacer__device fsb-flexible-spacer__device--md\" style=\"height:64px\"><\/div><div class=\"fsb-flexible-spacer__device fsb-flexible-spacer__device--sm\" style=\"height:64px\"><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>This session, presented at the 2023 Summit on Improvement in Education, introduces the role of disciplined inquiry in improvement efforts and unpacks key moves and considerations to support learning about a change idea utilizing a plan-do-study-act (PDSA) cycle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In this session, participants will learn the basics of the plan-do-study-act (PDSA) process and how that process features within improvement efforts. PDSA cycles are a key engine for learning about changes, but they are not the only form of disciplined inquiry that supports developing and iterating working theories of improvement. This session unpacks each step in the PDSA cycle and highlights how to successfully engage in cycles to support learning. This session will provide participants with sample templates and tools for engaging in PDSA cycles and an activity to identify learning opportunities within their work where this approach to inquiry could be useful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-vimeo wp-block-embed-vimeo wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Basics of PDSAs Method Session.mp4\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/814714663?h=627cc4a42b&amp;dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"1200\" height=\"649\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Access resources from this session:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.carnegiefoundation.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Basics-of-PDSA-Cycles_Slides.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Slides from In-Person Session<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.carnegiefoundation.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Basics-of-PDSA-Cycles_Participant-Handout.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">PDSA Template &amp; Planning Tools (Participant Handout)<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<div aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-fsb-flexible-spacer fsb-flexible-spacer\"><div class=\"fsb-flexible-spacer__device fsb-flexible-spacer__device--lg\" style=\"height:80px\"><\/div><div class=\"fsb-flexible-spacer__device fsb-flexible-spacer__device--md\" style=\"height:80px\"><\/div><div class=\"fsb-flexible-spacer__device fsb-flexible-spacer__device--sm\" style=\"height:80px\"><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n<div class=\"gb-container gb-container-e3118763 alignfull\">\n\n<div aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-fsb-flexible-spacer fsb-flexible-spacer\"><div class=\"fsb-flexible-spacer__device fsb-flexible-spacer__device--lg\" style=\"height:56px\"><\/div><div class=\"fsb-flexible-spacer__device fsb-flexible-spacer__device--md\" style=\"height:56px\"><\/div><div class=\"fsb-flexible-spacer__device fsb-flexible-spacer__device--sm\" style=\"height:56px\"><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n<div class=\"gb-container gb-container-0130b7b6\">\n\n<h2 class=\"gb-headline gb-headline-15957be1 gb-headline-text\">You Might Like<\/h2>\n\n\n<div class=\"gb-grid-wrapper gb-grid-wrapper-bddfab04\">\n<div class=\"gb-grid-column gb-grid-column-11a71804\"><div class=\"gb-container gb-container-11a71804\">\n\n<div class=\"gb-grid-wrapper gb-grid-wrapper-5555fe34 gb-query-loop-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"gb-grid-column gb-grid-column-fa6cb64e gb-query-loop-item post-3437 post type-post status-publish format-standard has-post-thumbnail hentry category-news tag-featured\"><div class=\"gb-container gb-container-fa6cb64e\"><a class=\"gb-container-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.carnegiefoundation.org\/carnegie-foundation-and-ets-release-skills-progressions-for-collaboration-communication-and-critical-thinking\/\"><\/a>\n<div class=\"gb-container gb-container-7a7e21e1\">\n<figure class=\"gb-block-image gb-block-image-29525fe2\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"822\" height=\"494\" src=\"https:\/\/www.carnegiefoundation.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Skills-Prog-822x484px.png\" class=\"gb-image-29525fe2\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.carnegiefoundation.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Skills-Prog-822x484px.png 822w, https:\/\/www.carnegiefoundation.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Skills-Prog-822x484px-300x180.png 300w, https:\/\/www.carnegiefoundation.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Skills-Prog-822x484px-768x462.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 822px) 100vw, 822px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"gb-container gb-container-d509fede\">\n<h2 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href=\"https:\/\/www.carnegiefoundation.org\/podcast-the-next-50-years-of-higher-ed-what-leaders-need-to-know\/\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<div aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-fsb-flexible-spacer fsb-flexible-spacer\"><div class=\"fsb-flexible-spacer__device fsb-flexible-spacer__device--lg\" style=\"height:100px\"><\/div><div class=\"fsb-flexible-spacer__device fsb-flexible-spacer__device--md\" style=\"height:100px\"><\/div><div class=\"fsb-flexible-spacer__device fsb-flexible-spacer__device--sm\" style=\"height:100px\"><\/div><\/div>\n\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This session, presented at the 2023 Summit on Improvement in Education, introduces the role of disciplined inquiry in improvement efforts &#8230; <a title=\"Basics of PDSA Cycles\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.carnegiefoundation.org\/basics-of-pdsa-cycles\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Basics of PDSA Cycles\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2644,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":true,"inline_featured_image":false,"ghostkit_customizer_options":"","ghostkit_custom_css":"","ghostkit_custom_js_head":"","ghostkit_custom_js_foot":"","ghostkit_typography":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70],"tags":[],"client_controls":[],"class_list":["post-2643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-improvement-science-collection"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Basics of PDSA Cycles - Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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