Studies show that teachers and students use humour when communicating with each other in a science education context. This study investigates the use of humour during a collaborative inquiry laboratory task on an undergraduate chemistry course and an undergraduate physics course. Seven groups of students working on a collaborative inquiry task…

Search the Internet for the qualities of a good teacher and you'll find that an entire range of ideas are offered. Having spent half a working life as a science teacher and the remainder as a science education consultant (and, for a period, an Ofsted team inspector!), the author would like to attempt to tease out what makes a "good science…