Testing the use of puppets for story retention
Martha Mullenbach · Carolina Digital Repository (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) · 2019
The purpose of this study was to determine whether the use of puppets in story telling situations can help students retain information. To explore this question on a small scale, three classes of North Carolina fourth graders were told three different North Carolina folktales, using a different presentation method for each folktale. The tales were told with either a puppet as a narrator, using flannel board figures from the tale or told without any aids. Data on the children's ability to retain information from each story was collected via questionnaires completed one week after the presentation of a story. Results indicate that puppets were not the most effective method to aid retention of information. Several factors identified as affecting the results are discussed here.