Towards a pedogogy of 'clown': using archetypes of clown to develop a model of effective primary science teaching

This paper suggests a model of classroom delivery and transformative pedagogy of teaching primary science based on archetypes of ‘clown’ (Bala, 2010;Gaulier, 2016), ‘clown’ being an embodiment of dualities of silly and serious, play and work and, in the classroom context, as an agent for transformation through imagination, learning and play. This study is situated in the context of Initial Teacher Education (ITE) in theUK and focuses on the development of a model of practice devised from studying films of primary science lessons and reflective dialogue from teachers featured in these.There are sixteen teachers featured; eight are from high schools where science has a high curriculum profile and levels of expertise, and their practice is contrasted with eight practitioners working in schools where science has a lower profile. From an analysis of the films, a model of pedagogy based on the emerging commonalities between all participants has been devised.This paper reports on early, and tentative, findings of the study.