The Role of Hand Puppets in Listening Instruction for First Grade Students at SD Muhammadiyah Sapen

Abstract

This article aims to describe in depth the role of hand puppets in mediating listening instruction for first grade students at SD Muhammadiyah Sapen, Yogyakarta. The study was motivated by the low focus, participation, and comprehension of students during listening activities in Indonesian language lessons, which were still dominated by teacher talk and lacked multisensory media. The research employed a qualitative case study design. The participants were one classroom teacher and thirty-three first grade students of class I Al Khawaritzmi. Data were collected through participant observation, in-depth interviews with the teacher and selected students, and documentation of lesson plans, student work, and photos or videos of teaching and learning. Data analysis followed the interactive model of Miles, Huberman, and Saldaña, namely data collection, data condensation, data display, and conclusion drawing, while trustworthiness was strengthened through source and method triangulation. The findings indicate three main roles of hand puppets in listening lessons. First, hand puppets function as multisensory attention mediators that help students concentrate and sustain attention on oral narratives. Second, hand puppets act as social interaction facilitators that reduce psychological barriers, so that more students are willing to respond, ask questions, and retell parts of the story. Third, hand puppets become concrete tools for meaning-making and emotional expression that support students’ understanding of characters, plot, and moral messages. These findings confirm the sociocultural view that learning is mediated by cultural tools and that hand puppets can serve as a form of scaffolding within children’s zone of proximal development. The study recommends that hand puppets be used systematically in early grade listening instruction as part of joyful, contextual early literacy programs.