The study identified that particular fairy tales written by the Grimm brothers affect children’s perception of reality. This is suggested by the fact that various attributes (lived experience, gender bias, innovation decision-making scenarios) can influence the perception of the story as close to reality, which is supported by the experiment results provided by Pulimeno et al. (2020). Models for emotional situations presented in the Grimm brothers’ fairy tale can influence the perception of reality through projected moral values (McCarley, 2017). Additionally, it was identified that the fairy tales of the Grimm brothers have different influences on perception depending on gender, which is also confirmed by the opinion about the presence of gender stereotypes in their fairy tales articulated by Meland (2020). The results also identify that educators can develop critical thinking in children through reading, analysis, role-play, and discussion. This is confirmed by the analysis of the third regression model and is also consistent with the information provided by Pardede (2015) and Dewey (1934). Especially the data emphasize the effectiveness of make-believe for situations of problem-solving and critical thinking.
Data analysis also identifies that presumptive may influence children’s judgment of certain fairy tales to be changed after increasing their critical thinking. This is achieved by improving problem-solving skills through the perception and analysis of emotional situations and moral values, which corresponds to the findings by Sayer (2018). The evidence is also supported by Rear (2016), who argues that advocacy for critical thinking in the classroom helps children help willingly judge, accept or reject new ideas, concepts, and views. Finally, the perceptions of reality depicted by a fairy tale significantly influence participants’ problem-solving and critical thinking attributes as depicted by a fairy tale. This is supported by the fact that different attributes influence the perception of reality in a fairy tale, which can later be modified through problem-solving. This is also in line with the findings of Erum (2009), which indicates that changing storylines allows children to distinguish different social norms and better understand the underlying reasons for events.
Thus, the research hypothesis that gender, moral match, character classification, lived experience, and problem-solving, either alone or interacting with each other, significantly influenced perceptions of reality depicted by a fairy tale was confirmed by the data obtained. The study also identified that lived experience and problem-solving significantly influence pedagogy-driven change in the perception of moral values, reality, and character re-classification.
References
Dewey, J. (1934). Art as experience. New York: Minton, Balch, and Co.
Erum, T. (2009). The history of gender ideology in brothers Grimm’s fairy tales. Pakistan Business Review, 11, 297-313.
Meland, A. T. (2020). Challenging gender stereotypes through a transformation of a fairy tale. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 28(6), 911–922.
McCarley, H. (2017). From once upon a time to happily ever after: Grimms, fairy tales, and early childhood development. Senior Projects. Web.
Pardede, P. (2015). A priority agenda for mental revolution in education: Developing critical and creative thinking through learning.Proceeding Mental Revolution in Education for Human Character Building, 104-121.
Pulimeno, M., Piscitelli, P., &Colazzo, S. (2020). Children’s literature to promote students’ global development and wellbeing. Health Promotion Perspectives, 10(1), 13–23.
Rear D. (2016). Critical thinking, language and problem-solving: Scaffolding thinking skills through debate. Journal of English Teaching, 5(3), 51 – 63.
Sayer, I., Kristiawan, M., & Agustina, M. (2018). Fairy tale as a medium for children’s character cooperation building. Al-Talim Journal, 25(2).