Celibel Capellan
Prof. Ewan
FIQWS
04-08-2019
Research Proposal: Puppetry In Children Education
When thinking about puppetry I would always assume or think of them as a form of entertainment, something that someone can create on their own and use it as as way to make entertainment for someone or a group of people, but ever since getting into this course and learning more about them, that assumption changed. Now I view puppetry as something that can be used for a variety of things beside for entertainment and laughter such as teaching in children’s education. Puppetry being used in children education has brought out the question of what are their impacts on their education.
This new way of using puppetry to teach children has brought me to question its use in a child’s learning. How can one benefit from being taught by non living objects that are manipulated by a person? Is puppetry even suitable for teaching? What can the use of puppets do that makes them differ from a teacher teaching a child? A lot of question would roam through my head whenever I realized that there is much more meaning and importance in puppetry. But of course I would try to come up with different assumptions as to how puppetry makes an influence in these children’s education.
One of those assumption that I came up could help bring out the difference between puppet and a regular teacher. You can interact with the puppets compared to how one would interact with a teacher. One would have a formal talk with a teacher compared to a puppet, whom the children could talk to as a friend. Another assumption that I came up with was that puppets are characters with different traits and personality allowing them to have a connection with any children who could be dealing with the same thing that the puppet has or is going through.
Even though I had assumptions of what the answer of my questions could be, I also thought of how others might have thought when hearing that puppetry is being used to teach children. Would people think of it as a waste of time teaching someone with non living objects? Do they think of it as a distraction towards the children because they are only listening to manipulated dolls? Or maybe some people thought of puppetry as great way to get children to talk and learn how to communicate with one another in a class? These types of questions would roam around my head thinking how others would think of this new way of using puppetry.
Addendum:
At first the thesis and overall topic of my paper was going to be about puppetry affecting children with learning disabilities but that changed when I began searching for sources. When there was not a lot of sources on puppetry affecting children with learning disabilities I decided to change the topic and thesis question to something that would allow me to have more than three sources and that is still related to education. So, the topic changed to puppetry in children’s education and whether puppetry impacts it. Once I changed my topic and thesis there was an increase amount of sources that I could look into compared to how it was before.
Puppetry In Children’s Education
In history puppetry was seen as a form of entertainment that uses puppets as a way to entertain people. It did not matter whether the people were young or old, puppets were still made to entertain. However, as time went on, puppetry is now being seen and used as a tool to help educate children. Puppets used in children’s education had supposedly shown a great influence on a child learning. Whether it’s their behavior, interaction, or how/what they learn through the course of using them, puppets leave us to question their impact on children’s education.
There have been times where puppets are used to teach children which can influence the way they interact or behave in their lessons. Mark B. Levy is a Jewish educator and author of “Some Uses Puppetry Jewish Education”, who had a difficulty in teaching a little girl basic Hebrew conversation when he was an undergraduate. When trying to make the girl speak and learn Levy kept having difficulty in trying to teach the little girl because of her resistance but that changed once he brought his puppet to one of their lessons (48). The puppet was named Notcher and with the use or help of Notcher, Levy was able to make the little girl speak and learn basic Hebrew conversations which increased the progress of the child learning compared to how it was before (49). With the use of Notcher the little girl even wrote flashcards in her spare time as a way to help Notcher speak English considering Levy introduced Notcher as an only speaking Hebrew character (49). This influenced the little girl to interact and change her behavior since she stopped resisting to learn and she began to talk Hebrew compared to how she was alone with Levy, very polite and resistant
(48-49) . This is where one can question the difference between a teacher teaching and a puppet being used in a lessons or in a class. The little girl resisted to learn the material which caused the progress of the little girl learning to decrease compared to when Levy brought out his puppet. When the puppet was brought out the progress of the little girl learning began to increase because she wanted the puppet to learn how to speak English influencing her to interact more in the lesson and change her behavior of resisting to learn the material. When looking at this one can obviously tell that a change occurred when Levy brought out his puppet causing a difference to show between him and his puppet. The little girl kept resisting the material whenever Levy, himself, tried to teach her but the little girl did not resist when the puppet was brought to the lesson, showing the difference between the pace Levy was having with the child and the pace the puppet was having with the child (48-49). Based on this alone one can say that the difference between a teacher and a puppet have is that a puppet can help speed up the learning process of a child while still influencing them to interact in the lesson while a teacher would still have progress but they would have to deal with stubbornness from a child or more.
Unlike puppets being used in Jew education, puppets are also now being used to educate children’s health, which plays a big influence on a child learning. Ackland Tilbrook, Trudy Dwyer, Kerry Reid-Searl, and Judia A. Parson from “A Review of the Literature – The Use of Interactive Puppet Simulation in Nursing Education and Children’s Healthcare”, discuss nurses using puppets as a play therapy in children healthcare education, and author R.A. Hoey from “Puppetry Health Education”, discusses the use of puppets in health education which both help bring out puppets influence in children education. The influence that these puppets have on children’s education and what health educators should hold (Hoey 47) is that it makes them feel less anxious or worried before going through a surgical process (Tilbrook et al. 74-75). The puppets are being used to model how their surgery is going to be and why they must take the surgery which help lessen their anxiety since they are being modeled or educated about their surgery by a puppet who acts like a friend to them. Puppets as well as impacts how the children are being taught about to take care of their health (Tilbrook et al. 74). Puppets are being used to model how children are supposed to do these things and why they must do them. This influence how children take care of their health because the puppets are showing how they must take care of their health or how they should take care of their health problems if they have any. This also helps answer the question of whether the use of puppets, a non living object or doll, is beneficial towards children’s education which in some way it could be seen as that they do benefit them considering puppets are helping decrease the level of anxiety they feel before going to surgery. Puppets are also helping increase their knowledge of their health and demonstrate how to maintain healthy or how to remain a healthy child. The use of puppets also helps children engage in group discussions helping strengthen their communication skills or interaction with others (Tilbrook et al. 74). By using puppets in groups it would influence children to participate or join in the discussions since the use of puppets can cause a friendly relationship with the children. As before, having this friendly relationship can cause the child to feel a sense comfort when engaging in discussions with other people.
This also helps answer the question of whether the use of puppets, a non living object or doll, is beneficial towards children in their education which in some way it could be seen as that they do benefit a child and their education considering puppets are helping decrease the level of anxiety that these children feel before going to a surgery process and they help increase their knowledge of their health and demonstrate how to maintain healthy or how to remain a healthy child. The use of puppets also helps children engage in group discussions helping strengthen their communication skills or interaction with others (Tilbrook et al. 74). By using puppets in groups it would influence children to participate or join in the discussions since the use of puppets can cause a friendly relationship with the children. Like stated before that having this friendly relationship causes the child to feel a sense comfortability when engaging in the discussions with other people or children in this case.
Whether puppetry impacts a child’s education some people say that the use of puppets does not really influence a variety of children. There are some that say that the use of puppets does not really influence a variety of children majorly older ones. Some say this because a lot of those children believe “that they are too mature to watch a puppet” (Levy 56) or even listen to them. This can cause one to question whether the use of puppetry is suitable for teaching. Considering the age range of children that a puppet has a influence towards is limited they still are a suitable teaching tool towards the age they can influence.
As puppetry is used to broaden the educational field an impact on children education was seen based on these evidence. The use of puppets had impacted the way children interacted and behaved in lessons by not resisting to learn and speaking about the material (Levy 48-49). Puppetry also impacted the way that children feel before going to their surgery and how they learn about taking care their health (Tilbrook et al. 74). The use of puppets helped decrease their level of anxiety and distress and it helped them join in discussions about taking care your own health (Tilbrook et al. 74-75). Although puppetry is limited to certain ages (Levy 56) and it is still not determined whether puppets are suitable for teaching one can say based on the evidence that the use of puppets in children education leaves a positive impact on children that reaches their age range.
Annotated Bibliography
Hoey, R.A. “Puppetry Health Education.” Health Education Journal, vol. 23, no. 1, 1965, pp. 47–50. SAGE journal, https://journals-sagepub-com.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/doi/abs/10.1177/001789696502300108. Accessed 6 April.2019.
This is about puppets being used for health education purposes and how they can be used to get through children of small age with different themes. This source is reliable because it provides information on how health educators should use puppets to get through children in order to educate them about their health.
Levy, Mark B. “SOME USES OF PUPPETRY IN JEWISH EDUCATION.” Journal of Jewish Education, vol. 68, no. 3, 2002, pp. 48–57. EBSCOhost, https://web-a-ebscohost-com.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=5a0b50b6-817a-4e74-81c1-5c2cae5a6984%40sdc-v-sessmgr03. Accessed 5 April.2019.
This is about Levy experience as an undergraduate having difficulty in trying to teach a little girl basic Hebrew conversations. It is also about how Jewish educators should include the use puppets in their lessons in a efficient way. This source is reliable because it provides an experience and reasons as to why educators should include puppetry in their lessons. It’s also reliable because it discusses the limitation that puppets have.
Tilbrook, Ackland ; Dwyer, Trudy ; Reid-Searl, Kerry ; Parson, Judi A. “A Review of the Literature – The Use of Interactive Puppet Simulation in Nursing Education and Children’s Healthcare.” Nurse Education in Practice, vol. 22, 2017, pp. 73–79. Science Direct, https://www-sciencedirect-com.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/science/article/pii/S1471595316302578. Accessed 6 April.2019.
This article is about how nurses use puppets in health education as a way to help children. This source is reliable because it discusses how the use of puppets influence a child in their health.
