A check for reading level, use of passive voice, and consistency of tense in this piece were provided by ChatGPT, an OpenAI generative AI tool. The output was reviewed and revised for factual accuracy by the author, copyedited in full by a human, and checked for plagiarism prior to publication. The AI tool did not contribute any original ideas to the research.
Active Playful Learning (APL) is a pedagogical framework co-developed by scientists and educators to help teachers create learning experiences that are more active, meaningful, socially interactive, and joyful. The APL Project examines whether kindergarten through fourth grade teachers could implement APL practices when provided professional learning opportunities, and whether those practices were associated with changes in educators’ experiences of teaching and student development of academic and 21st century skills. The Project provides two professional learning pathways: a self-paced pathway that includes APL workshops and a coached pathway that includes the same workshops plus regular classroom-embedded coaching. The Project is being implemented in school districts in Virginia, Illinois, Texas, and California. This working paper reports findings from the first two years of implementation during the 2024-2025 and 2025-2026 school years.
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