Three years into a Temple-led study spanning four states, Temple psychologist Kathy Hirsh-Pasek and collaborators report encouraging early findings suggesting Active Playful Learning strengthens academic achievement while helping students build the skills needed for an AI-driven future.

After three years of testing a new approach to teaching in elementary classrooms across four states, Temple researchers are reporting encouraging results. 

The finding suggests classrooms built around connection, curiosity and student voice can strengthen students' reading and math skills while also helping them develop the creativity and critical thinking they'll need to succeed in an AI-driven world. 

At the center of the research is Active Playful Learning (APL), a teaching approach grounded in decades of research on how children naturally learn. Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, the Stanley and Debra Lefkowitz Faculty Fellow in Temple University's Department of Psychology and director of the Temple Infant and Child Lab, began developing the approach with her longtime collaborator Roberta Golinkoff, Unidel H. Rodney Sharp Chair and professor in the School of Education at the University of Delaware. Through a five-year research grant from the LEGO Foundation, the approach is now being evaluated in elementary classrooms across California, Illinois, Texas and Virginia. 

"My rather simple but bold prediction was that if we could teach in the way the human brain learns, then kids would learn better," said Hirsh-Pasek. "And they would be able to transfer that learning to new situations."  

Hirsh-Pasek assembled researchers from institutions across the country—including the University of Delaware, University of New Hampshire, Vanderbilt, University of Chicago, University of Virginia, the University of California at Irvine, the University of Texas at Dallas and Southern Methodist University—to translate decades of learning science into practical classroom strategies. Working alongside educators and school administrators from the start, the team jointly developed a scalable model that is both evidence-based and practical to implement across grade levels, subjects and school systems. 

That collaborative approach, Hirsh-Pasek said, has been just as important to the project's success as the instructional model itself. 

"We're beginning to show that playful learning can be applied in classrooms across many different settings," said Deborah Vandell, Chancellor's Professor Emerita in the School of Education at the University of California, Irvine, and one of the study's collaborators. "As educators report a real re-engagement in teaching, we're seeing the potential for this work to impact schools across the country and around the world." 

Teachers reported measurable gains in students' reading and mathematics while also seeing improvements in collaboration, language development, critical thinking, creative innovation and work habits. Coaches likewise found that classrooms increasingly gave students greater agency and choice in their learning while connecting lessons more intentionally to students' lived experiences. 

"Those findings extend beyond test scores," said Kimberly Nesbitt, associate professor of human development and family sciences at the University of New Hampshire and a collaborator on the study. "We need to create learning environments where children have a voice and can think critically about problems that don't have a single right answer." 

The study included over 570 kindergarten through fourth-grade teachers, with two-thirds receiving coaching in the APL framework while the remaining classrooms served as comparison groups. 

Rather than asking teachers to simply add more games to their lessons, researchers and educators worked together to rethink how learning unfolds. Teachers shifted towards student-centered learning by creating more opportunities for discussion, collaboration and problem-solving while encouraging children to connect lessons to their own experiences.  

For Hirsh-Pasek, the results reinforce what she has believed throughout her career: meaningful learning happens when students are active participants in the process, not simply recipients of information. 

While the findings point to improved classroom outcomes, the research also addresses a much larger question than whether play belongs in the classroom. As artificial intelligence continues to reshape how people work, communicate and solve problems, Hirsh-Pasek believes educators have an opportunity to rethink not only what students learn, but how they learn it.  

"My research is about the humanity in it all," she said. "It's about the fun and the struggle of not knowing and finding out. It's not about getting a quick answer." 

As the research continues, Hirsh-Pasek and her collaborators hope the Active Playful Learning model will offer educators more than a new instructional strategy. Together, they hope it will provide educators with a practical framework for helping students succeed academically while preparing them to navigate an ever-changing world.