This doctoral thesis examines puppet play in preschool daycare activities and its impact on the social behaviour of the children in a preschool classroom. We were interested in the preschool teachers' practical experience of using puppetry and drama activities, and the degree to which they used the developmental model for education, which is based on the principles of creative drama, in their planning and carrying out of these activities. Drama is a societal or social form of art in which children cannot co-operate without connecting, making agreements and communicating with others. Since successful participation in puppetry and drama depends on these skills, drama can be a very valuable area for developing children's capabilities and competencies.
The theoretical part addresses social development in early childhood and the meaning of social competence for successful inclusion in the environment. The children's play with the puppet was studied as part of symbolic play, which is presented in the second chapter of the thesis along with creative role play, socio-dramatic play and pretend play. The next chapter focuses on early education with and through art, namely a successful method of learning and teaching in all areas of the curriculum. In the thesis, the importance of puppetry for a quality early upbringing and education is substantiated in a comparative analysis of the approaches and methods of theatre pedagogy in which we were deeply interested with regard to the interaction and creative work with the puppet.
The empirical part involves survey research in which we used the causal non-experimental method of pedagogical research. We were interested in the standpoints and practices of preschool teachers in their work with the puppet, how their approach to conducting puppetry and drama activities changes in the course of their education, and what is the role of puppet play in the children's changed social behaviour and the development of the social competence of individuals in the group. The research results corroborated the importance of including puppetry and drama activities planned and carried out according to the principles of creative drama for quality implementation of the preschool curriculum, and as an aid to preschool teachers when communicating with a group of children and with individual children. It was established that the education in puppetry and drama led to a positive change in attitudes to use of the puppet, with the practice of puppetry activities also changing towards the developmental model approach. The research into how the puppet influences the children's social behaviour showed that engaging in regular and continuing puppetry activities planned according to and grounded in the developmental model contributes to a positive change in this area. After three months of carrying out the puppetry activities, by the teachers’ estimates, children displayed less aggressive behaviour, an increase in their participation in activities and prosocial behaviour was noticed, with improvements being also seen in the children's focus and perseverance in activities.
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