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PDSA Game: Number Sequence
During this activity, teams experience conducting multiple PDSA cycles (iterative testing) to learn about a change idea and build confidence prior to implementation. These materials equip a facilitator to guide participants through the process of testing a change and considering their readiness for implementation. The activity introduces the importance of articulating theories, making predictions, and collecting data when learning through disciplined inquiry.
This activity simulates engaging in disciplined inquiry to learn about and implement a new instructional practice. As an imperfect analogy, a sequence of numbers will represent a promising practice that improvement teams want to implement across their network.
This set of resources includes the following materials:
- Number Sequence Activity: Facilitator’s Guide – Outlines the activity objectives and structure
- Number Sequence: Activity Slides – Introduces the activity purpose and structure, and includes slides to reveal subsequent numbers in the sequence
- Participant Handouts – Includes instructions for the group activity as well as a recording sheet for theories, predictions, results and points
During the activity, the facilitator shares numbers in a sequence one-by-one, and working in small groups, participants run a series of Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles (PDSAs) to discover the rule for the sequence that will predict the next number. In each cycle, groups assess their confidence in their theory to correctly generate the next number in the sequence and decide whether to gather more data to understand the sequence, test their prediction, or implement at scale.
This activity is designed for beginner and intermediate audiences that have some prior knowledge of the purpose of disciplined inquiry and can be leveraged after an introduction to the PDSA cycle and its steps.
Download Facilitator’s Guide for PDSA Game: Number Sequence (PDF)