On a cold January day in Shawnee, Oklahoma, school leaders from Shawnee and Anadarko Public Schools gathered in a conference room, excited to talk about play-based learning. It was the first of a two-day kickoff training for the Leading Early Childhood Achievement and Development (LEAD) professional learning series. Despite icy roads that caused delayed arrivals, participants were ready to learn how to support early childhood teachers to implement research-based early learning practices in their classrooms.

Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Southwest and the Oklahoma State Department of Education (OSDE) formed the LEAD partnership in 2023 to ensure that all students in Oklahoma have access to the types of learning experiences that will help them be successful in school. The cornerstone of the partnership is a professional learning series co-developed with Oklahoma educators. The goal of the series is to improve school leaders' and teachers' knowledge of research-based early learning practices, encourage teachers to put the practices into use in the classroom, and support the adaptation and implementation of those practices in school policies. Research has found that prekindergarten (preK) and kindergarten students benefit when they engage in play-based learning and high-quality teacher–student interactions.¹ Play-based learning is a meaningful, actively engaging, joyful, iterative, and socially interactive² approach to teaching. It can be child-driven with activities selected by students, or it can involve teacher guidance, planning, or interaction to initiate and sustain the play activities.³

The LEAD school leader experience

After the kickoff in January, school leaders continued to work with REL Southwest experts through spring 2024 to define play-based learning, explore how it connects to their school policies, and plan how to train their school staff to implement play-based learning. REL Southwest staff and school leaders also  reviewed the importance of high-quality teacher–student interactions, which occur when teachers thoughtfully engage with students, model respect, build trust, and support student learning by encouraging positive relationships in the classroom.⁴ Building on this knowledge, school leaders planned how they would introduce the LEAD professional learning series to the preK and kindergarten teachers at their schools.

"It's always great to have another district that isn't attached to you, to see how they feel, and to reaffirm those things, or to give you new ideas that you haven't thought about," said Jeff Barrett, principal at Anadarko's Sunset Elementary and participant in the LEAD kickoff training. "It's been great to work with Shawnee."

Supporting teachers to put play-based learning into practice

After the January training, the school leaders began putting their plans into action. They scheduled time for their teachers to complete the four asynchronous LEAD training modules, convened teachers in a community of practice (CoP) after each training module, and conducted classroom walk-throughs and other classroom-based activities that support the implementation of play-based learning and high-quality teacher–student interactions.

"I think having our whole school do it together during our CoPs has been great, because we've gotten to have lots of collaboration amongst our teams and amongst preK and K, and we're all excited about it," Cassie Flora, a kindergarten teacher at Shawnee Early Childhood Center, said. "I think it's bringing the morale up, and it's bringing people together more."

"Our administrators are very excited about this," Carrie McCoy, a preK teacher at Shawnee Early Childhood Center, said. "It's definitely taken a lot of pressure off of us as teachers during an observation or a walk through. If we're doing purposeful play, administration understands that we're not 'just letting the kids play,' that we're actually teaching standards, and it's okay to do that."

The guidance and support from school leaders and information received in the training modules has helped teachers participating in LEAD increase their understanding of research-based early learning practices.

"I would say my knowledge [on play-based learning] was probably about a 7 or 8," said Heather Cooper, a preK teacher at Anadarko's Sunset Elementary. "Every year it grows and changes. As we did the modules, I've learned more about the different types of play-based learning, the child-directed play and the teacher-guided [play]. I'm learning more about those details to incorporate them."

Future opportunities to participate in the LEAD professional learning series

More schools will have the opportunity to participate in the LEAD professional learning series in school years 2025/26 and 2026/27. Watch for announcements from OSDE in the OK Early Education newsletter and on the OKEARLYED Facebook page.

"I say take the step, if you don't have any play-based learning in your building, even if you have some, and you just need it refined," said Barrett. "This program has been really good for us to refine what we do. We didn't have to start from the ground up, but it definitely made us take a step back and look at what we are doing and make some changes to make it better."

Related Resources

• Blog: Promoting more equitable early childhood education: Introducing REL Southwest's LEAD partnership in Oklahoma
• Infographic: Supporting School Leaders and Teachers to Implement Research-Based Early Learning Practices