Do you recognise this costume?

This illustrated article disusses a English mummers' costume, bearing the date 1829, that recently turned up at an antiques gallery in New York. Although the provenance is unknown, it is similar to the costumes of the clowns who accompanied swords dancers and plough plays in Yorkshire and the East Midlands. The closest match is with the clowns of the village of Bellerby, North Yorkshire, so it may have come from near there

The association between class clown dimensions, school experiences and accomplishment

Nearly forty years ago, Damico and Purkey (1978) pioneered a study on class clowns that became a benchmark publication in the field. Utilizing sociometric assessment methods, they screened 3500 pupils, eventually selecting 96 class clowns that yielded 10 or more “class clown” nominations from peers. The class clowns were compared to a randomly selected sample of 237 non-clowns on the bases of teacher ratings, student self-esteem, and school-attitude measures. They report class clowns as being predominantly males, having lower positive attitudes toward teachers and the principal than non-clowns, and they saw themselves as leaders and as being vocal in expressing ideas and opinions to their classmates. Moreover, they were judged by their teachers to be higher than the non-clowns in asserting, unruliness, attention seeking, leadership, and cheerfulness, but lower in accomplishing. Thus, a new and coherent picture of the class clown was emerging; but little additional research took place, with no study replications. Before building upon these findings, and extending them, a few issues need highlighting. The first relates to the assessment of class clowns. Is there really only one type of class clowns or do more types exist? Is a “type” approach still appropriate, as psychology has moved to dimensional conceptualizations? In the Damico and Purkey (1978) study, there are gradual differences and a criterion of 10 nominations was rather an arbitrary set. So utilizing a dimensional approach to class clown behaviors is more appropriate. Another set of issues relate to the domains of measurements. Are teacher self-reports of accomplishing sufficient or should they be supplemented by the objective grades of the student, as well as the student’s own perspective and peer reports

Diminutive Catastrophe: Clown\u27s Play

Clowns can be seen as enacting catastrophe with a small “c.” They are experts in “failing better” who perhaps live on the cusp of turning catastrophe into a metaphorical whirlwind while ameliorating the devastation that lies therein. They also have the propensity to succumb to the devastation, masking their own sense of the void with the gestures of play. In this paper, knowledge about clowns emerges from my experience, working with circus clowns in Circus Knie (Switzerland) and Circo Tihany (South America), observing performances and films about clowns, and reading, primarily in European fiction, of clowns in multiple guises. The exposure to a diverse range of texts, visual media and performance, has led me to the possibility that clowning is not only a conceptual discipline but also a state of being that is yet to be fully recognised

Intervensi Gizi Meningkatkan Praktik Pemberian Makan Anak Stunting

This study aims to identify differences in the average feeding practices of stunted clowns in the intervention and control groups. Quantitative Research Method with a quasi-experiment post-test only control group design. The analysis in this study used the Independent T-Test. The study results showed that the average feeding practice for stunted clowns in the intervention group was higher at 112.32 compared to the intermediate feeding practice for stunted clowns in the control group of 77.71. The analysis using the independent T-test showed a significant difference between the average feeding practices of stunted clowns in the intervention group and the control group, with a p-value of 0.0001. The conclusion is that implementing nutritional interventions can improve the practice of feeding stunted toddler children.   Keywords: Nutritional Intervention, Feeding, Stuntin

The character strengths of class clowns

Class clowns traditionally were studied as a type concept and identified via sociometric procedures. In the present study a variable-centered approach was favored and class clown behaviors were studied in the context of character strengths, orientations to happiness and satisfaction with life. A sample of 672 Swiss children and adolescents filled in an 18 item self-report instrument depicting class clown behaviors. A hierarchical model of class clown behaviors was developed distinguishing a general factor and the four positively correlated dimensions of “identified as a class clown,” “comic talent,” “disruptive rule-breaker,” and “subversive joker.” Analysis of the general factor showed that class clowns were primarily male, and tended to be seen as class clowns by the teacher. Analyses of the 24 character strengths of the VIA-Youth (Park and Peterson, 2006) showed that class clowns were high in humor and leadership, and low in strengths like prudence, self-regulation, modesty, honesty, fairness, perseverance, and love of learning. An inspection of signature strengths revealed that 75% of class clowns had humor as a signature strength. Furthermore, class clown behaviors were generally shown by students indulging in a life of pleasure, but low life of engagement. The four dimensions yielded different character strengths profiles. While all dimensions of class clowns behaviors were low in temperance strengths, the factors “identified as the class clown” and “comic talent” were correlated with leadership strengths and the two negative factors (“disruptive rule-breaker,” “subversive joker”) were low in other directed strengths. The disruptive rule breaking class clown was additionally low in intellectual strengths. While humor predicted life satisfaction, class clowning tended to go along with diminished satisfaction with life. It is concluded that different types of class clowns need to be kept apart and need different attention by teachers

Improving children’s patient experience with a mobile hospital clowning application – Initial user experiences from the clowns’ perspective

eHealth solutions are increasingly being developed to support patient care and improve patients’ experiences (PXs). Recently, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and the shortage of nurses in several countries, including Finland, have further underscored the need for new digital services. In the context of children’s hospitals, care-supporting services include hospital clowns who work to provide emotional support for children and improve their PXs. Hospital clowns are known to have a positive impact on children’s PX. The Finnish hospital clown organization Sairaalaklovnit ry has published its first mobile application Sairaalaklovnit to provide a digital contact platform to reach patients remotely via messages. The application is mainly targeted at child patients and includes both entertainment and messaging facets for communication between child patients and hospital clowns. The two main user groups for this application can be considered to be child patients and hospital clowns. This article presents the data and results found during a study related to the user experience (UX) of the Sairaalaklovnit application. With the research questions, “Which aspects influence the UX of the hospital clown application?” and more specifically, out of the two user groups, “How do Finnish hospital clowns experience the new hospital clown mobile application?”, this study aims to gain an understanding of how Finnish hospital clowns experience the newly developed application for expanding physical contact with patients into a digital form. The qualitative data used in this article were collected in the summer of 2022 through an online questionnaire (n = 5) and semi-structured interviews (n = 3) with hospital clowns. The hospital clowns were mostly satisfied with the published application, but some deficiencies were mentioned. Most of the complaints were related to technical issues. However, the application was seen as a useful tool that can bridge physical and digital contact with children. The developer has been made aware of the technical issues and fixes expected in the future. For future research, it can be beneficial to rerun the UX study for the hospital clowns and possibly with a larger sample to see whether there have been any changes after the technical issues have been solved. Moreover, studying how child patients, which constitute the other user group, experience the new application, can prove to be beneficial for possible future development

Magical attachment: Children in magical relations with hospital clowns

The aim of the present study was to achieve a theoretical understanding of several different-age children's experiences of magic relations with hospital clowns in the context of medical care, and to do so using psychological theory and a child perspective. The method used was qualitative and focused on nine children. The results showed that age was important to consider in better understanding how the children experienced the relation with the hospital clowns, how they described the magical aspects of the encounter and how they viewed the importance of clown encounters to their own well-being. The present theoretical interpretation characterized the encounter with hospital clowns as a magical safe area, an intermediate area between fantasy and reality. The discussion presented a line of reasoning concerning a magical attachment between the child and the hospital clowns, stating that this attachment: a) comprised a temporary relation; b) gave anonymity; c) entailed reversed roles; and d) created an emotional experience of boundary-transcending opportunities

WOMEN CLOWNS

Este artículo constituye un resumen de mi proyecto de tesis Payasas: Historias, Cuerpos y Formas de Representar la Comicidad desde una Perspectiva de Género. En mi trabajo, intento contribuir al registro del arte de la payasa. Para ello, he realizado entrevistas con payasas de varios países que han sido pioneras en la profesionalización de este oficio. También he realizado un análisis de género y sexualidad a partir de la contribución de autores y autoras de varios temas y disciplinas, tales como: comicidad, risa, payasaria, circo, performance, feminismo, teoría queer y cultura visual. Al mismo tiempo se describen problemáticas genealógicas y conceptuales, así como su reflejo directo en mi trabajo artístico como payasa, que se traduce en mis actuales proyectos de performance: Xoxo Clown Show y TransClowning.This paper is a brief overview of my thesis project Women Clowns: Stories, Bodies and Forms of Representing Comicality from a Gender Perspective. My work aims to contribute to recording the art of women clowns. To this end, I have conducted interviews with several women clowns, pioneers in the professionalisation of this art. I also analyse gender and sexuality based on contributions from authors of various fields and disciplines, such as humour, laughter, clown theory, circus, performance, feminism, queer theory and visual culture. This article deals with genealogical and conceptual problems, and their direct impact on my artistic work as a woman clown, which is transferred into my current performances: Cunt Clown Show and TransClowning

E-Books: Cognitive and Visual Effects

Sight is incredibly important to daily life. One critical use of this sense is reading, which allows people to communicate and learn new things if the reader is able to effectively comprehend what he or she has read. The proliferation of technology has resulted in much of our reading today being done through digital media. Information-presenting screens are found nearly everywhere, including within the education system. While E-books can offer some advantages, their purpose would not be served if they hindered understanding. Additionally, excessive use of technological devices can bring about symptoms of eyestrain. It was hypothesized that E-books are in fact neither helpful nor harmful in reading comprehension but may increase reading time. In the present study, 40 students at Butler University read a short story either on paper or on a laptop screen. They then took a quiz over the plot events of the short story, either in a physical or digital format. Lastly, they completed a short survey regarding their use of E-books and how their technological interactions affect their vision. It was found that the only factor that affected quiz scores was the testing medium. It is important, then, to ensure that online exams are user-friendly

Spartan Daily, April 14, 2009

Volume 132, Issue 38https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartandaily/10575/thumbnail.jp