An exploratory study into the perceived benefits of, and barriers to, the pedagogical use of puppet play in the early years

Abstract

This paper explores the perceived benefits of and barriers to, using puppets in early years classrooms and childcare settings. An online survey of 121 early years educators revealed that puppets are widely, but infrequently, used in the early years, and are largely found to be valuable pedagogical tools by those that use them. Puppets were reported to benefit play, teaching, wellbeing and the communication of behaviour requirements, as well as positively impacting engagement with learning and behaviour mediation. Frequent users were more positive than infrequent users. Barriers to usage included a lack of confidence or awareness of how to use puppets pedagogically (23%, n = 19), a lack of puppet resources (23%, n = 19) and a series of ‘sub-conscious’ decisions not to use puppets based more on apathy than dislike (49%, n = 40). A small minority (10%, n = 8) made a conscious decision not to use puppets because they were negative about puppets. Training and information are required to encourage more puppet use and raise awareness of the benefits; there is also a need for the provision of puppet resources to realise the pedagogical potential of puppet play in the early years.