No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the author.
Humor in Pedagogy: How Ha-ha can Lead to Aha!
Abstract
Several studies have examined the pedagogical implications and cautions concerning the use of humor in teaching. Humor has been associated with a host of positive physiological and psychological effects. Researchers have identified that educators who use humor in their instruction are more positively rated by their peers and their students; others have suggested that humor may enhance learning. Although much of this evidence has been anecdotal, the present study assesses the impact of curriculum-specific humor on retention and recall, as well as student evaluations of the course and the instructor. The appropriate use of humor in a classroom setting is discussed and cautions against tendentious humor are addressed.
... Finally, we integrated the instructional humor processing theory (IHPT) (Wanzer et al., 2010) as a boundary condition in the relationship between loneliness, ASE, and student engagement. Using humor in teaching is one of the instructors' pedagogical abilities (Garner, 2006) to engage students creatively and produce effective interactions (Lei et al., 2010). Thus, we advance our knowledge by adding new empirical evidence to cover the role of humor in learning to minimize the negative effect of loneliness on ASE and increase its effect on student engagement. ...
... (Lei et al., 2010). Humor in learning is one of the instructors' pedagogical abilities (Garner, 2006) to engage students creatively and interestingly (Lei et al., 2010) in a university environment. The IHPT (Wanzer et al., 2010) is a theoretical foundation that explains how humor in classroom learning affects student learning. ...
... Moreover, the IHPT relies on students' perceptions (appropriateness) of the instructor's humor, which can positively or negatively affect their learning effectiveness. In contrast, humor does not directly influence learning but can create conditions for learning activities (Bains et al., 2015;Garner, 2006;Lujan & DiCarlo, 2016). ...
This study investigated the impact of loneliness on academic self-efficacy (ASE) and student engagement in the context of remote teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, as a boundary condition, we examined the role of intermediate ASE in the relationship between loneliness, student engagement, and perceived humor in learning. A total of 367 undergraduate students from six universities in Indonesia completed an online questionnaire. Data were analyzed using Macro Process version 4 to test the moderating mediation model hypothesis. As expected, the study results show that loneliness is negatively related to ASE and student engagement. ASE is proven to affect student engagement positively; concurrently, it plays an intermediate role in the link between loneliness and student engagement. Finally, humor had a significant moderating effect on learning in the tested model. This study contributes to the existing literature on loneliness and student engagement by uncovering the intermediate role of ASE. Drawing on the social cognitive theory (SCT) and instructional humor processing theory (IHTP), we explored how perceived humor in learning moderates the relationships between loneliness, ASE, and student engagement.
... Various research studies expound the value of humour as a pedagogical tool (Kaplan & Pascoe, 1977;Martin, Phulik-Doris, Larson, Gray & Weir 2003;Garner, 2006;Wanzer, Frymier & Irwin, 2010;Hale, 2015;Bell & Pomerantz, 2016;Bilokcuoglu & Debreli, 2018;Alatalo & Poutiainen 2016;Lamminpää & Vesterinen 2018;Nasiri & Mafakheri, 2015;Lovorn & Holaway, 2015;Offer, Skead & Sean, 2018). For Kaplan and Pascoe (1977), Garner (2006) and Wanzer, Frymier and Erwin (2010) humour was shown to have positive impacts on students' comprehension, retention and recall. ...
... Various research studies expound the value of humour as a pedagogical tool (Kaplan & Pascoe, 1977;Martin, Phulik-Doris, Larson, Gray & Weir 2003;Garner, 2006;Wanzer, Frymier & Irwin, 2010;Hale, 2015;Bell & Pomerantz, 2016;Bilokcuoglu & Debreli, 2018;Alatalo & Poutiainen 2016;Lamminpää & Vesterinen 2018;Nasiri & Mafakheri, 2015;Lovorn & Holaway, 2015;Offer, Skead & Sean, 2018). For Kaplan and Pascoe (1977), Garner (2006) and Wanzer, Frymier and Erwin (2010) humour was shown to have positive impacts on students' comprehension, retention and recall. Kaplan and Pascoe (1977) had 508 university students view either a serious lecture or one of three versions of a humorous lecture (humorous examples related to the concepts in the lecture (concept humor), unrelated to the concepts (nonconcept humor), or a combination of concept and non-concept example). ...
... While the first test results did not show significant findings, a re-test 6 weeks later showed that retention of concept humour material was significantly improved. In a much smaller study with 117 undergraduate students, Garner (2006) had similar results. The students who viewed the digitally video-recorded lectures that included a humorous story, example or metaphor "significantly recalled or retained more information about the topic" (2006:179). ...
In especially the context of a writing centre, learning takes place during, and as part of, the conversations between the writing centre consultant and the student. This interaction is an integral part of writing centre research and is the focus of this largely qualitative study, employing a politeness lens. While there is some research on the politeness strategies employed by writing center consultants, there is very little research on the use of humour and its accompanying laughter to enhance rapport and interaction. The use of humour in the context of a writing centre is particularly relevant especially in light of the power dynamics and ‘distance’ inherent in the student-consultant relationship. This study therefore analysed a corpus of 10 video-recorded and transcribed writing centre consultations through a politeness lens in an effort to fill this gap. Our findings indicate that humour used positively can have positive effects, bridge the gap and create rapport and solidarity in complex relationships. The analysis also demonstrates how humour and laughter as used in the context of a writing centre consultation enhances interaction, creates a more positive learning environment and lessens the stress and anxiety students generally associate with academic writing. Keywords: positive politeness, negative politeness, humour, writing centre, academic writing
... However, how students process teachers' humorous messages are still not clear. The focus of previous studies (e.g., Garner 2006;Ziyaeemehr et al. 2011) have only been on identifying whether humour enhances student learning in the classroom; these studies did not explore how students' process and connect humour to their learning. Students' perspectives and experiences are important, as they are the recipients of humorous messages and the ones who ultimately decide whether the humour used is instructional or not. ...
... In relation to learning, researchers have demonstrated that humour makes people laugh and supports learning (Lomax & Moosavi 2002). It is particularly useful in gaining and retaining students' attention (Garner 2006;Miller et al. 2017;Ziyaeemehr et al. 2011). Humour also enables information acquisition (Houser et al. 2007;Miller et al. 2017) by simplifying complex concepts so that students can understand and recall learning content (Ziyaeemehr et al. 2011). ...
... The second benefit of humour is that it contributes to a positive classroom environment. Humour helps students release anxiety, predominantly when learning content they dread (Garner 2006). A good sense of humour encourages students to listen and pay attention and keeps them engaged to attend the class (Masek et al. 2019). ...
Recently, scholarship on humour in teaching and learning has focused on the use of instructional humour. Past studies have reported that instructional humour is best used as a pedagogical tool for teaching and learning purposes. Nevertheless, how students perceive instructional humour and how humour enhances learning in the classroom is still not clear. This exploratory study aims to gain further understanding of students’ interpretation of teachers’ use of humour in relation to teaching and learning in a higher education context. In particular, it aims to explore the perspectives of students as to how the use of humour in the classroom enhances their learning. Data were collected from one-to-one in-depth interviews with 10 undergraduate students who were learning with award-winning teachers at a research-intensive university in New Zealand. Students explained a variety of ways in which humour enabled their process of learning. These included helping them to concentrate, remember and understand learning content by connecting humour to content. Additionally, a sense of rapport and positive attitude towards learning and the teacher were indicated as contributing to the learning environment. Our findings indicate that students considered instructional humour a tool that enhanced their learning cognitively and emotionally.
... Humor dilihat mampu memberikan impak yang positif terhadap pengajaran guru (Nguyen, 2014) serta membentuk pemikiran yang kritikal dan kreatif (Stopsky, 1992). Suasana yang kondusif ini akhirnya memberi kesan terhadap penguasaan murid (Hassed, 2001;Berk, 2001), meningkatkan bakat kemahiran (Garner, 2006), emosi yang stabil dan positif serta menambah baik pencapaian mereka dalam sebarang aktiviti di dalam kelas sama ada secara individu ataupun berkumpulan (Cohen, 1996;Norfaezah, 2015 ). ...
... Guru dilihat lebih dihargai apabila menggayakan amalan humor di dalam bilik darjah (Fortson & Brown, 1998). Humor juga dikatakan dapat mengurangkan kebimbangan, tekanan, ketegangan, meningkatkan keyakinan diri serta moral, dan menambah baik motivasi diri, rasa ingin tahu yang kuat, kefahaman dan akhirnya mampu meningkatkan kualiti hidup murid (Berk, 2001;Garner, 2006;Bakar & Amran, 2020). Tambahan itu juga, amalan humor di dalam bilik darjah didapati mampu mengawal masalah peribadi murid yang timbul di sekolah (Paterson, 2006 Jemaah Nazir Sekolah dan Jaminan Kualiti (2004) menyatakan bahawa guru haruslah memainkan peranan penting untuk mendidik para murid dalam merealisasikan matlamat pembelajaran di dalam bilik darjah. ...
... Sebaliknya, kelas yang dipenuhi dengan jenaka yang relevan dianggap menarik oleh murid (Pham, 2014). Guru yang mengamalkan humor diklasifikasikan oleh murid dan rakan setugas sebagai lebih positif dan membantu (Garner, 2006) dan majoriti murid bersetuju dengan menyatakan guru yang mempunyai ciri-ciri humor adalah guru yang berkesan (Malikow, 2007). ...
... Content relevant, appropriate humour paves the way for increased comfort levels leading to positive interactions and open communication between the instructor and the student (Banas et al., 2011;Gorham & Christophel, 1990). By humanizing and reducing anxiety, humour can reduce social distances and learning apprehensions, and increase active learning, motivation and engagement, and facilitate skill acquisition where learners can go beyond traditional learning contexts and improve retention and recall (Acquaviva, 2015;Banas et al., 2011;Garner, 2006;Nienaber et al., 2019;Tews et al., 2015). In a study that measured the style of instructor's humour against student engagement, Nienaber et al. (2015) found that students established higher comfort levels with instructors who used affiliative humour. ...
... Humour has physical and cognitive affects. Garner (2006) researched the physical outcomes, such as aiding learning by increasing respiration and circulation, lowering blood pressure and have general healing powers. Garner (2006) also "suggests that humor can reduce anxiety, help relieve stress and increase mental sharpness -all desirable things in pedagogical settings" (p. ...
... Garner (2006) researched the physical outcomes, such as aiding learning by increasing respiration and circulation, lowering blood pressure and have general healing powers. Garner (2006) also "suggests that humor can reduce anxiety, help relieve stress and increase mental sharpness -all desirable things in pedagogical settings" (p. 177). ...
For the most part, information landscapes such as libraries are structured, organized, created, and used by the dominant groups. These spaces may be unfamiliar territory for many students. Humour used in library orientation elicits enjoyment and helps to connect librarians and students. Low and high inference humour used during orientation can help connect students new to those landscapes with information and to librarians. Appropriate use of instructional humour in orientations can reduce students’ anxiety about using the library, especially when they need help from library staff. This reflective write up on using humour in library orientations, is to demonstrate how we used humour to create a comfortable learning environment, to encourage students to visit the library, to improve (hopefully!) recall and retention of course content, and enable positive associations with library resources or the librarian. There are challenges with humour when the classroom is diverse or if humour is used negatively. Care should be given to use humour to support course content.
... The fourth theme is the relationship between humour and formal environmental education. For example, R.l. Garner's (2006) research found that using humour in teaching can have a positive effect on student enjoyment and content retention: "the use of appropriate humor in this study has been shown to enhance the learning environment and has a significantly positive impact on retention of educational materials in a real-world academic setting" (179). more recently, others such as Patrick Chandler et al. (2020) and Kaltenbacher and Drews (2020) also found that humour enhances learning about environmental issues such as climate change. ...
... I'm not sure I used cartoons when teaching high school students in the mid-1970s, which is consistent with John Banas et al.'s (2011) observation that, "Compared to college instructors, high-and intermediate-school teachers have been found to use slightly less humor in their classes" (121). But since finding your cartoons in the academic phase of my career I have continued to use them over the years in the belief that using humour in teaching can have a positive effect on student enjoyment and content retention (Garner 2006;sambrani et al 2014), and on student's emotional engagement (Hoad, Deed and lugg 2013). I also use them to emphasise critical points. ...
... While cartoonists (and many educators) believe cartoons have power in consciousness-raising and as change agents, it is difficult to know whether they do have this power, and how we can tell. There is research that shows that using humour in teaching can have a positive effect on the facilitation of learning (seidman and Brown 2013), student enjoyment and content retention (Garner 2006), and promoting more relaxed learning environments that support interactions among students (Tziatis 2012). This humour does not necessarily involve the visual, but research by sambrani et al (2014) found that visual material presented in a humorous manner is remembered better than equivalent visual non-humorous material. ...
This article brings together a feminist environmentalist cartoonist with a feminist environmental educator in an exploration of the generativity of cartoons in environmental education research and teaching. Using duoethnography as a methodology, and drawing on critical and new materialist feminist theory, we explore our personal memories, stories, and conversations, as well as discussing the origins and/or significance of particular cultural artefacts (some of Judy’s cartoons), to illuminate the reasons for, and influences on, our engagement with cartoons, feminism, the environment, and formal environmental education. Drawing on a range of literature around humour and environmental education and feminism, juxtaposed with our conversations and the cartoons, we also seek to identify some possible ways of measuring what impact or influence cartoons about the environment might have once they are in the world, thereby exploring their generativity in environmental education research, theorizing and practice.
... By incorporating elements of enjoyment into language teaching, educators can help students develop the resilience and skills necessary to navigate the intricacies of language acquisition successfully. Researchers have identified that teachers who integrate humor in the teaching process are generally positively rated both by their colleagues and students (Garner, 2006). Dörnyei (2001) also considers humor as a motivational teaching practice and mentions the importance of integrating humor in teaching to establish an enjoyable classroom atmosphere. ...
... For this reason, Deneire (1995) warns that humor should be used with caution both in the class and other public contexts. Garner (2006) also states that the use of humor could be most effective when it is appropriate to the students, the topic, and the place. These discussions, of course, need to be based on research findings. ...
... Indeed, the literature on the utility of humour in teaching seems unequivocal. Laughter in the classroom acts to relieve stress and anxiety (Shibinski & Martin 2010), helps students retain information (Garner, 2006) and improves teacher-pupil relationships (Nesi, 2012) and students' enjoyment of the subject (Torok et al., 2004). Of specific importance here, the use of humour in the lecture theatre focuses student attention (Ulloth 2002) and helps students engage with the subject matter (Glenn, 2002). ...
... Students' narratives about teachers' assertiveness supported previous research, which found that students valued a respectful and a clearly structured learning environment (Klem & Connell, 2009). Furthermore, the present results confirm studies which found a positive association between teachers' perceived humor and students' learning (Garner, 2006;Wanzer &Frymer, 1999). In line with Raufelder's finding (2007), the current results provide evidence that students expect a good teacher to show empathy for their individual needs. ...
This paper looks at the top students final year in their program for the last semester from the Faculty of Psychology and Education, Universiti Malaysia Sabah. There were seven-programme offered in the Faculty of Psychology and Education which is seven top students were served as a subject in this study. We present an exploratory multiple case studies of comprehending and categorising the learning styles of top students. The purposed of this study was conducted to find out and specify their learning and studying style that allowed them to achieve the high rank in their program. This research was used a rigorous multi-step approach for its qualitative methodology. In order to find out the top students' Universiti Malaysia Sabah learning style were preferred more than 10's learning styles model was used. As a base line in this research, there are six themes were used in this case studies, which is T1-Lecture, T2-Tutorial, T3-Individual Assignment, T4-Group Assignment, T5-Study Tactic and T6-Lecturer. Results indicated that the six themes of learning style preferences considered in the interview questions were positively preferred.
... Humor has also been deemed one of the most crucial characteristics of an effective teacher (e.g., Daumiller et al., 2020;Fortson & Brown, 1998). Students in a humor condition have been reported to have better communication with their instructors (Garner, 2006), and to perceive less stress in the classroom (Chiarello, 2010), than their non-humor condition counterparts. Empirical results about using humorous materials to reduce anxiety and improve students' ability have been mixed, however. ...
... Ziv (1988) found that an intervention group taught with humor-i.e., relevant jokes and cartoonsoutperformed a control group on an exam. Garner (2006) conducted a similar study in a distance-education format, and reported that an intervention group that had been given humorous video segments scored better on a test covering the information in the videos than a control group whose segments were not humorous. And when Ford et al. (2012) provided funny cartoons to a group of students before a math exam, its members not only had better exam results, but also felt less anxiety while taking it. ...
Amid widespread concerns about the mental health of teenagers, this quasi-experimental study examines the effects of a classroom humor intervention on 268 seventh graders’ positive emotions, as well as their sense of humor and language ability. The participants completed self-report measures and a language exam before and after the intervention, which lasted six weeks. Analysis of covariance and mediation analysis were used to evaluate the effects. The results supported the researchers’ hypotheses that the humor intervention would significantly increase learners’ positive emotions, sense of humor, and language ability. The mediation analysis revealed that sense of humor mediated the relationship between the humor intervention and positive emotions, and that neither sense of humor nor positive emotion was the sole factor contributing to the observed learning gains. The study concludes that the intervention helped foster a learner-friendly environment in which the participants increased their positive emotions, sense of humor and language ability simultaneously, and makes recommendations for practitioners and future researchers on that basis.
... In the classroom, researchers suggest that the use of humor is a practice that makes a lesson more interesting (Berk, 1996;Garner, 2006). Indeed, teacher humor positively influences the students' motivation to learn (Conkell, Imwold, & Ratliffe, 1999) and improves the quality of the teacher-student relationship (Aylor & Oppliger, 2003;Kosiczky & Mullen, 2013). ...
... 3. Educational Strategy. In addition to being considered as a coping mechanism (McCreaddie, Payne, & Froggatt, 2010), humor is primarily an educational strategy that has benefits for teachers (e.g., psychological well-being) and students (e.g., academic engagement) (Garner, 2006;Kosiczky & Mullen, 2013). In summary, educational researchers have incorporated the educational value of humor into their definitions (Ziyaeemehr, Kumar, & Abdullah, 2011). ...
... This was obviously reflected in the increased rate of participation and the apparent level of continuous concentration they showed in class. Besides, it was discovered that students' retention of information was developed, for they were unusually able to retain key classroom vocabulary material (related to clothes and parts of the body) on the spot and in later sessions.This finding is corroborated by other researchers, particularly Schmidt (1994) and Garner (2006). ...
... This explains that the learning activities based on which humour was created did not appeal much to students. Moreover, Garner (2006) contended that humour is "highly personal, subjective, and contextual and we cannot always predict the way it will be received" (p. 178). ...
This study examines the benefits of using humour in the language classroom. It investigates the incorporation of humour in the classroom and how it can facilitate and create pertinent conditions for learning and teaching. It probes students' attitudes towards their teachers' humour, and whether they consider it a learning aid or not. The study used a quasi-experiment that involved two tests and two groups of students: a treatment group and a control one. The pre-test and post-test results and findings revealed that humour facilitates learning and teaching by reducing anxiety, increasing motivation, encouraging participation, boosting concentration and improving retention.
... We feel more relaxed, less defensive, and by laughing with someone, we experience a perceived social bond (Martin 2007). This may be exemplified in Garner's (2006) study, where University students watched lectures which either did or did not have humour involved. Compared to students in the non-humorous condition, students in the humorous condition had higher opinions of lecturers, felt the lecturers communicated more effectively, and rated the lecturers more positively (Garner 2006). ...
... This may be exemplified in Garner's (2006) study, where University students watched lectures which either did or did not have humour involved. Compared to students in the non-humorous condition, students in the humorous condition had higher opinions of lecturers, felt the lecturers communicated more effectively, and rated the lecturers more positively (Garner 2006). Billig (2005) elaborates that using humour and laughter can assist in teaching social norms and values. ...
Recently there has been an increase in scientists, educators, and activists moving into comedy to tell the climate story. Could using humour as an educational method encourage a greater response to the climate crisis? The present research addresses this question by exploring the impact that an environmental-based comedy show had on various learningrelated and emotional outcomes. It was hypothesised first that humour has a positive influence on these outcomes, second, that there is a relationship between fear, hope, and responding to climate change, and third, that age is a significant factor in predicting such variables. Participants watched a recording of a live environmental stand-up comedy show and completed a questionnaire about their experience—all during the first COVID-19 lockdown in 2020. The analyses indicated that even in these unprecedented circumstances, the environmental comedy show provided various learning-related outcomes and emotional outcomes. Further, the results suggested that age somewhat predicts variables related to climate change.
... Aside from the two other benefits, previous studies also noted several instructional benefits of TH. The practical use of TH related to curriculum content has been consistently remarked in the literature to be most likely to flatter acquisition/learning and retention of content Wanzer, M. B., Sparks, L., & Frymier (2009);Garner (2006); Gorham, J., & Christophel (1990). Progressed comprehension and learning of a second language can be credited to the enhanced concentration and, thereby, discerning formulated by TH. ...
... Moreover, TH in EFL classes was to have a significant influence on students' learning retention. These findings were in line with the studies by Kaplan & Pascoe (1977), Garner (2006), Robert Nguyen (2014). These studies found that TH can help better students' learning and retention. ...
According to several studies on English teaching and learning, English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers tend to avoid humor in their classrooms. However, many studies have shown that teachers’ sense of humor plays an essential role in EFL students’ learning process. Therefore, this study utilizing a mixed-method design was conducted to determine students’ perceptions of the impact of teachers’ humor (TH) on their learning. Data were collected through a questionnaire with a five-point Likert scale comprising twenty-one items and semi-structured interviews. The study involved 158 university students in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam. Quantitative data from the questionnaire were analyzed by using SPSS 20.0, and data from the interviews were analyzed according to themes. The survey results revealed that the students showed positive attitudes toward the effects of TH in EFL classrooms, especially reducing boredom (M=4.59), strengthening teacher-student rapport (M=4.53), decreasing sleepiness (M=4.47), promoting students’ cheerfulness (M=4.47), increasing students’ consciousness (M=4.46), and solving conflicts in classrooms (M=4.42). Additionally, non-majored students were appreciated for TH more than their counterparts. Moreover, students’ perceptions positively correlated with their gender. The interviews also showed that cultural factors affected the effectiveness of TH in EFL classes. EFL teachers are encouraged to use TH in their classes in order to foster its benefits. However, careful consideration should be taken before using TH in teaching different students with different learning styles or characteristics.
... Other scholars working in educational fields with close ties to social movements have also pondered humour, typically building on more general inquiries into the pedagogical potential and pitfalls of using it (e.g. Banas et al. 2011;Garner 2006;Gordon and Mayo 2014;Morreall 2014). For example, Anita Bright (2015) and Raúl Alberto Mora, Simon Weaver and Laura Mae Lindo Using humour to tackle major societal injustices is tricky, however, and certainly can backfire by trivialising issues and reproducing rather than disrupting oppression (Chattoo and Feldman 2020;Goebel 2018;Tsakona and Popa 2011). ...
... Nevertheless, humor alignment with course content is appreciated similar to its identification by other scholars (Gutiérrez et al., 2023). This highlights the need for teachers to understand its proper use as its effectiveness appears to depend on the teacher-student relationship, indicating its implementation should be welltimed and appropriate (Garner, 2006). Interestingly, the students in the study all remarked on the importance of humor, irony (Fadel & Al-Bargi, 2018), spontaneous wit (Neff & Dewaele, 2023), and different tones (Pawlak et al., 2020). ...
The study provides an exploration into the dynamics of the teacher-student relationship within an EFL context. Through the use of qualitative analysis, it investigates the effect of immediacy, credibility, and pedagogical love on student engagement and motivation within a Saudi Arabian higher education setting. The study reveals that the three dispositions, when interconnected, can foster a conducive learning environment that encourages active student participation and enhances academic learning. The importance of prioritizing emotional connections over purely linguistic goals and integrating cultural and social beliefs into pedagogical practices were also explored. It also underscored the importance of using the vernacular in promoting cultural identity and positioning teachers as influential role models. The study further identifies student perceptions of respect from authoritative figures as significant and that teacher energy, both physical and intellectual, as critical in shaping student acceptance of the learning environment. Lastly, it highlights a generational shift in teaching methodologies towards a more modern, humanistic style in line with changing generations. The research ends with recommendations for professional development to engage language learners effectively and improve educational outcomes.
... Meyer (2000) argues that politicians use humour to make their speeches memorable, build a rapport with the audience, show friendliness, and/or reduce negative reactions when critiquing their opponents. In the context of teaching and learning, humour is used to assist or facilitate learning in the classroom (Chabeli, 2008;Garner, 2006). Bakar (2019) asserts that contrary to a stand-up comedians and politician's use of humour, teachers' use of humour serves more than just the goal of eliciting laughter, but they serve as an instructional tool for teaching and learning purposes. ...
In the world today, co-operative societies are important to the extent that cooperators have opted to ensure their sustainability by establishing guiding principles, education and training. With this regard, the Tanzanian government has made efforts to ensure regular provision of Co-operative Education and Training (CET) in each co-operative society. However, CET provision in Tanzania remains unevaluated and mal-evaluated, resulting in unsustainable, dormant and extinct co-operative societies. Yet, the extant studies on CET are too general as they cover the overall performance of the co-operatives, leaving out CET evaluation unexplored. This study evaluates CET in Tanzania by determining the status of CET and examining the practice of CET evaluation in Ukerewe and Sengerema districts. Findings were drawn from 64 respondents using purposive sampling technique. Data were collected through focus group discussions, key informant interviews and documentary review. Thematic analysis was used to analyse data. The study used a context, input, process, and product (CIPP) model of education evaluation to examine the practice of CET evaluation. The findings revealed that regardless of the existence of CET evaluation both formative and summative, there were some shortfalls. In terms of practice, the findings revealed that CET was seasonal while the context, input, process and product evaluation were unsatisfactory; hence confirming the poor trend of cooperative societies’ development. The study concludes that CET is still a necessity to ensure both the status of CET and practice. The study recommends CET institutions to prepare a centralised curriculum for all co-operatives and review CET regularly to suit societal needs. The government should set aside funds for CET and needs assessment to avoid irrelevant knowledge to the co-operators.
... Meyer (2000) argues that politicians use humour to make their speeches memorable, build a rapport with the audience, show friendliness, and/or reduce negative reactions when critiquing their opponents. In the context of teaching and learning, humour is used to assist or facilitate learning in the classroom (Chabeli, 2008;Garner, 2006). Bakar (2019) asserts that contrary to a stand-up comedians and politician's use of humour, teachers' use of humour serves more than just the goal of eliciting laughter, but they serve as an instructional tool for teaching and learning purposes. ...
Humour as a pedagogical tool has been recommended for every grade level from preschool to university and for various subjects. The current study investigates English instructors and students understanding of the role of humour in English literature classes towards teaching and learning English as a foreign language at tertiary level. The participants included 4 English literature instructors and 12 student teachers from the department of languages and literature at Mkwawa University College of Education. The qualitative approach was employed using semi-structured interviews, classroom observations and focus group discussions as data collection methods. The findings revealed that participants had a better understanding of the role of humour in English literature classes as a pedagogical tool to help learners understand the lesson content and learn English as a foreign language. Also, participants confirmed that learning English literature cannot be separated from learning English language as well as humorous materials are indispensable towards teaching and learning English literature. Moreover, the findings revealed that instructors sometimes had to code switch from English to Kiswahili to help learners understand the meaning of humour and connect to the content of the lesson. Based on these results, the study recommends that English literature instructors should use humour in their teaching to motivate students during the teaching and learning process; improves students’ ability to retain information more easily and for a long time; and helps learners avoid boredom, anxiety and stress when learning in English as foreign language. Finally, instructors are urged not to use code-switching frequently when practicing humour in English literature classes to help students build positive attitude towards English language and advance the knowledge of the language.
... When the literature is examined, it is seen that educational games are the researches (Akgun, Nuhoglu, Tuzun, Kaya & Cinar, 2011;Conati, 2002;Habgood & Ainsworth, 2011;Karamustafaoglu & Kaya, 2017;Topcu, Kucuk & Goktas, 2014;Yurt, 2007) that reveal their effects on success in the teaching process. Same way, the research of teacher candidates in this study to make jokes to add fun to the teaching process is match with researchs (Altinkurt & Yilmaz, 2011;Asilioglu, 2013;Aydin, 2006;Balta, 2016;Garner, 2006;Jeder, 2015;Lei, Cohen & Russler, 2010;Sahin, 2010;Topcuoglu, 2007) indicating the importance of humour in the educational process in the literature. ...
Photos are a good opportunity for teaching the concepts of change and continuity. At the same time, photos provide the ability to interrogate, looking at different angles, and thinking multidimensionally. In this context, photos are the most important bridges that open the door to the mind. The main problem of the research is how to achieve academic success in teaching Social Studies. In this context, efforts to upgrade the academic achievement of students will be important. The aim of the research is to attempt to determine the effect of photos on the students' academic achievement and attitude towards the course in the "Journey in the Turkish History" unit in the book of the 7th grade Social Studies lesson.
... When used appropriately in classroom, humour can be very beneficial as it leads to a more relaxed atmosphere, affects students' motivation and learning, develops good rapport among the students and the instructor and relieves tension and negative emotions, inspiring novel ideas (Powell and Anderson 1985, Ziv 1988, Berk and Nanda 1998, Cook 2000, Schmitz 2002, Garner 2006. The same applies to the learning process: students' ability to perceive and appreciate positive humour may be beneficial for their learning and retention. ...
The overall aim of this book is to view humour, as a specific type of language use, in the social and cultural context and describe some of its main features both in the theoretical and applied sense. Written from a cultural linguistic perspective, the main idea behind this book is to deconstruct the patterns on which multimodal humour is based, to determine how it gets its full potential in social interactions, and to explore how we can apply these findings in the domains of translation and education. Hopefully, this would represent a step towards a more holistic understanding of underlying humour mechanisms, its production and comprehension.
... When used appropriately, humor in the classroom effectively boosts student engagement among postsecondary students. Research has shown that integrating humor into classroom teaching improves student enjoyment of the course and knowledge retention (Banas et al., 2011;Garner, 2006) and motivation to learn (Banas et al., 2011). It also enhances overall student performance (Hackathorn et al., 2011). ...
... Researchers suggested that humor can harm (if misused) or strengthen social relationships between students and teacher; in addition, humor is thought to help students and teachers feel good and closer together (Friedman & Kuipers, 2013;Ho, 2016). This strategy is extensively used to establish or restore authority, as well as to help students adopt the values of the school code of conduct (Garner, 2006). Research has indicated that teachers' use of humor is significantly associated with students' motivation (Conkell et al., 1999;Luo et al., 2023), classroom and school climate (Kosiczky & Mullen, 2013), and the quality of social relations (AbdAli et al., 2016). ...
This study used the instructional humor processing theory to test how different humor subtypes employed by teachers (course-related, course-unrelated, self-disparaging, other-disparaging) relate to students’ well-being, sense of belonging, and engagement. The participants comprised 395 students (107 boys, 278 girls) from 12 elementary and six high schools in the province of Quebec (Canada) aged between 10 and 17 years (Mage = 14.11). Correlational and structural equation modeling methods were used to analyze these relationships. Results showed that only humor related to course content (positive association) and other-disparaging humor (negative association) were significantly associated with the sense of belonging, which, in turn, was positively associated with a cognitive, affective, and behavioral engagement. Results also showed that only course-related humor (positive association) and unrelated humor (negative association) were significantly associated with students’ emotional well-being, which, in turn, was positively associated with cognitive and affective engagement. As far as this study is concerned, humor in the classroom should be course-related when it comes to supporting students’ emotional well-being, sense of belonging, and engagement.
... other scholars working in educational fields with close ties to social movements have also pondered humour, typically building on more general inquiries into the pedagogical potential and pitfalls of using it (e.g. Banas et al. 2011;Garner 2006;Gordon and Mayo 2014;Morreall 2014). For example, anita Bright (2015) and raúl alberto Mora, Simon Weaver and laura Mae lindo (2015) have written about humour in social justice education generally, while angel Hinzo and lynn Schofield Clark (2019), Garry Jones and Colleen Gloin (2016) and Shannon leddy (2018) have focused on indigenous education, Cris Mayo (2008), Mairi Mcdermott and Kim lenters (2021) and Jonathan rossing (2016) on anti-racist education, Michalinos Zembylas (2018) on Holocaust education, Eleni loizou and Simoni Symeonidou (2019) on critical disability education, and Majken Sørensen (2016) on activist education. ...
Feminists, according to Sara Ahmed (Citation2010), ‘kill other people’s joy by pointing out moments of sexism’ (582) and their interventions are often ‘read as about the unhappiness of feminists rather than about what feminists are unhappy about’ (583). The same might be said about environmental educators, who have a reputation in some quarters for being ‘killjoys’ who peddle in doom-and-gloom (Verlie Citation2020). While environmental educators often do raise discomforting issues in their efforts to disrupt and transform the unsustainable and inequitable status quo, are we the universally dour bunch such stereotyping suggests? The three of us would say not. Like Ahmed, we have found that, “There can be joy in killing joy” (592) and such joy can bubble up, for example, when we work with kindred spirits committed to a shared purpose or when we witness others having an “aha!” moment. Alongside the impassioned pleas and occasional harsh words, peals of laughter can be heard ringing through the conference halls, windowless rooms, Zoom meetings, and other sites where we environmental educators gather together professionally.
... Meyer (2000) argues that politicians use humour to make their speeches memorable, build a rapport with the audience, show friendliness, and/or reduce negative reactions when critiquing their opponents. In the context of teaching and learning, humour is used to assist or facilitate learning in the classroom (Chabeli, 2008;Garner, 2006). Bakar (2019) asserts that contrary to a stand-up comedians and politician's use of humour, teachers' use of humour serves more than just the goal of eliciting laughter, but they serve as an instructional tool for teaching and learning purposes. ...
... The students' answers showed that using humor in a good way and properly in the classroom will help the students to relieve that anxiety and tension and improve the learning because if we do not know our students and we do not use the fun or humor in the appropriate situations in the learning setting, that 'ha ha' of humor in the classroom may indeed contribute to the 'aha' of learning from the student (Garner, 2006). It is important to notice that besides positive effects toward humor in the classroom there are also challenges. ...
... Güldürerek öğretmek önemli bir öğretmen özelliğidir (İlhan, 2015). Yapılan birçok araştırmada öğrenciler için ideal öğretmen özelliklerinden birisinin "mizah anlayışına sahip olması" olduğu tespit edilmiştir (Garner, 2006;Hill, 1988;Oruç, 2010). Her öğrenci karşısında mutlu, gülümseyen ve güldürebilen bir öğretmen görmek ister. ...
... Numerous studies have explored the role of humour in enhancing language learning, and it has been shown to aid in the transmission of cultural knowledge (Davies, 2003;Muqun & Lu, 2006; Wagner & Urios-Aparisi, 2011), stimulating intrinsic learner motivation (Schmitz, 2002), and overall enjoyment of lessons (Garner, 2006). In terms of the role of humour in vocabulary learning, Ness (2009) noted that the deep processing associated with humorous wordplay can lead to better vocabulary acquisition and vocabulary recall. ...
... But what about learning through comedy? The relationship between humor and learning has been thorough researched over the years, emphasizing on the psychological effects of humor in-class [15], on students' content retention [16], on the creation of a positive learning environment [17] etc. Through the design of the "Turtle Heroes" game, we aspire to further investigate whether humorous serious shooter games may help in raising awareness on an important environmental and societal issues, like the extinction of Caretta caretta. ...
Immersive playful activities are regarded to be a promising way for increasing children’s understanding of significant issues. This paper proposes an immersive interactive tunnel environment, for which we developed a serious game to raise awareness on children and young adults on environmental issues and endangered species, and specifically, about Caretta caretta. The paper first describes the design and implementation of the CAVE-tunnel system; then, it discusses the design and development of the serious game “Turtle Heroes”. This is a work in progress while more games are in the design process for this VR interactive tunnel setup. Possible uses, opportunities and future works-games in this environment are also discussed.KeywordsEnvironmental VRImmersive gameInteractive tunnelChildrenGame-design
... En salle de classe, des chercheurs suggèrent que l'utilisation de l'humour est une pratique qui rend un cours plus intéressant (Berk, 1996 ;Garner, 2006). En effet, l'humour de l'enseignant influence positivement la motivation des élèves à apprendre (Conkell, Imwold et Ratliffe, 1999) ...
... This may incentivize students to make greater efforts in engaging with the topic at hand (Wrench and Richmond 2004;Frego 2006). Research has also shown that humor has the potential to intensify the effects of learning (Ziv 1988;Garner 2006;Violanti et al. 2018;Wanzer and Frymier 1999). Humor allows educators to engage students' attention because of its entertainment value (Strick et al. 2010;Zillmann et al. 1980). ...
Humor has received increasing attention in environmental educational research in recent years as it can have a variety of positive effects on learning atmosphere, outcomes, and student-educator relationships. In most cases, humor is used by educators while students act as consumers. However, this does not exploit the full potential of humor for environmental education. This article shows how humor can be applied as a distinct learning method and what outcomes and effects can be achieved. Our method draws on approaches from comedy-writing schools, thus bridging this community of practice to environmental education. It provides students with an understanding of the basics of humor, empowers them with practices to develop their own humorous texts, and guides them towards high-quality comedy scripts. We implemented several master courses at the Vienna University of Economics and Business based on this method. In 2021, we assessed the effects on students’ sustainability knowingness, attitudes, and behavior and analyzed qualitative outcomes. It was revealed that humor can play a pivotal role in environmental education as it fosters critical thinking and creativity, helps students cope with emotionally difficult topics, and supports them in becoming agents of change.
... Notes 1. A scoping review on the use of humor in teaching, across several disciplines, identified that it can facilitate comprehension (Garner 2006) ( € Ozdo gru and McMorris 2013) maintain student interest (Hellman 2007), increase students' interest and retention (Shatz and Helitzer 2005), improve student perceptions of learning (Wanzer and Frymier 1999), motivate ...
Existing literature on using humor in teaching identifies several social and pedagogical benefits, ranging from making students feel more comfortable and interested in the subject matter to facilitating a critical pedagogy approach. However, there are several risks associated with humor attempts that are detrimental to learning and to student experiences. Through analyzing qualitative data from three focus groups (FGs) with 2nd and 3rd year Politics and/or International Relations (Pol & IR) students, this article advances a student-centric understanding of the pitfalls of using humor in content delivery. While humor is often subjective, timing, frequency, established conventions, subject matter, and lecture persona all impact how students perceive humor used by lecturers. This article juxtaposes existing literature on approaches to using humor in teaching, and its pedagogical benefits, with empirical evidence of student perspectives and expectations to highlight the practical challenges and risks of including humor attempts in effective Pol & IR teaching.
... Humour as a teaching technique or strategy has been widely defined as anything perceived or recognised by students to be funny, comical, or amusing; or the quality that makes something funny, laughable or amusing [6,7]; and is more recently generally defined as an skillset, away to communicate, an educational strategy, a personal perspective or a positive emotional and behavioral response [8]. In this study, however, humour was specifically defined relative to mathematics content area as "mathematical humour" [9], a mathematics content-related humour often derived from mathematical concepts being discussed, combined with general humour ideas, particularly the incongruity theory of humour characterised by elements of surprises and unexpected twists or turns [5]. This opinions survey about teachers' views or attitudes was motivated by a South Sudanese volunteer mathematics teacher who initially agreed to take part as a co-teacher-researcher during the experimentation and implementation phase of H-SIA [10], but who later opted out of research participation. ...
This chapter reports the views of South Sudanese secondary school teachers about the use of humour in the mathematics classroom as a teaching and learning tool. The use of humour as a pedagogical toolkit in a mathematics classroom is something that has not yet been seriously or widely considered and how the teachers, especially South Sudanese teachers, would react to the use of humour in the classroom was not yet known. An opinion survey containing six (6) close-ended questionnaire items or statements related to the use of humour in the classroom was distributed to ten (10) secondary schools located within and around Juba city. About sixty-five (65) South Sudanese secondary school teachers responded to the survey. Posed was a research question intended to explore the general views, attitudes, or opinions of South Sudanese secondary school teachers: What do South Sudanese secondary school teachers think about the use of Humour-Supported Instructional Approach (H-SIA), a proposed-alternative method of teaching and learning mathematics at secondary school level? Findings of this opinions survey indicate that South Sudanese secondary school teachers' overall average views are positive toward the use of humour in the classroom setting. The average majority of the surveyed secondary school teachers appeared keen and seemed eager to welcome experimentation with new ways of teaching and learning in the classroom. Hence, it is recommended that classroom teachers be always encouraged and allowed a certain degree of freedom to explore and try out new ways of teaching and learning. It is suggested, however, that teachers be first provided with necessary proper training about how to use humour appropriately, effectively, and creatively in the classroom environments.
... Humour as a teaching technique or strategy has been widely defined as anything perceived or recognised by students to be funny, comical, or amusing; or the quality that makes something funny, laughable or amusing [6,7]; and is more recently generally defined as an skillset, away to communicate, an educational strategy, a personal perspective or a positive emotional and behavioral response [8]. In this study, however, humour was specifically defined relative to mathematics content area as "mathematical humour" [9], a mathematics content-related humour often derived from mathematical concepts being discussed, combined with general humour ideas, particularly the incongruity theory of humour characterised by elements of surprises and unexpected twists or turns [5]. This opinions survey about teachers' views or attitudes was motivated by a South Sudanese volunteer mathematics teacher who initially agreed to take part as a co-teacher-researcher during the experimentation and implementation phase of H-SIA [10], but who later opted out of research participation. ...
This chapter reports the views of South Sudanese secondary school teachers about the use of humour in the mathematics classroom as a teaching and learning tool. The use of humour as a pedagogical toolkit in a mathematics classroom is something that has not yet been seriously or widely considered and how the teachers, especially South Sudanese teachers, would react to the use of humour in the classroom was not yet known. An opinion survey containing six (6) close-ended questionnaire items or statements related to the use of humour in the classroom was distributed to ten (10) secondary schools located within and around Juba city. About sixty-five (65) South Sudanese secondary school teachers responded to the survey. Posed was a research question intended to explore the general views, attitudes, or opinions of South Sudanese secondary school teachers: What do South Sudanese secondary school teachers think about the use of Humour-Supported Instructional Approach (H-SIA), a proposed-alternative method of teaching and learning mathematics at secondary school level? Findings of this opinions survey indicate that South Sudanese secondary school teachers' overall average views are positive toward the use of humour in the classroom setting. The average majority of the surveyed secondary school teachers appeared keen and seemed eager to welcome experimentation with new ways of teaching and learning in the classroom. Hence, it is recommended that classroom teachers be always encouraged and allowed a certain degree of freedom to explore and try out new ways of teaching and learning. It is suggested, however, that teachers be first provided with necessary proper training about how to use humour appropriately, effectively, and creatively in the classroom environments.
... A study by Romal (2008) illustrates that students find it easier to understand concepts and examples in maths class by adding the element of humour in the explanation of said examples. Furthermore, there is a positive corelation between teaching statistics with elements of humour and students' achievements in universities (Garner, 2006). Aside from that, Durdevic and Mirkovic (2013) have carried out a study on the level of communication that contains humour in learning mathematics. ...
... The students were encouraged to stop the video and conduct some searches about the topic. The students were also asked to bring their opinions and the information they had gathered to the classroom [44][45][46][47][48][49]. ...
This qualitative case study explores the use of teacher-generated videos uploaded on YouTube and their influences on teacher-middle school students’ relationships in social science classes in Istanbul, Turkey. The teacher has prepared twelve videos for eighty students in four different classrooms for three months. The videos’ content and language were analysed using inductive thematic analysis. Interviews were held with the teacher and ten randomly chosen students. The data generated through the interviews were analysed using inductive thematic analysis by two Turkish-English speaking researchers. The video content analysis revealed that media richness, manipulation of self, and informality had played a central role in student engagement and their attitude towards the teacher and the lessons. The language used in the videos had a conversational tone, including humour and prompts, which attracted the students’ attention and created a sense of community. The nature of teacher-generated videos achieved parental engagement and a sense of pride and positively impacted the classroom climate.
... Let me quote some investigation otherwise who is going to believe a fog headed. Apart from my personal experiences various investigations done by some translucent researchers (Civikly, 1986;Garner, 2006;Gorham, & Chrwastophel, 1990;Kher, Molstad, & Donahue, 1999;Torok, McMorrwas, & Lin, 2004;Wanzer & Frymier, 1999) suggested the importance of humor in classroom as it reduces fear, anxiety, stress and Increases attention, motivation, excitement, and cohesion in classroom, encourages inactive students to actively ITIRJ32 participate. Studies also threw light upon endocrinological dimension of stress and suggested that humor reduces the cortisole level which is known as stress hormone. ...
Brain fog can be known as feeling of mental confusion and lack of mental clarity in which one becomes forgetful and his thinking becomes muddled and impaired. Stress is an important factor to cause brain fog among students. Various studies suggested that humor can be an effective brain fog dissolvent (defogger). The present paper highlights the effectiveness of humor to dissolve brain fog among students and gives some suggestions to incorporate humor in the classroom.
Keywords: Brain fog, Classroom humor, Defogger, Mental haze, Stress, Anxiety
... By engaging with irony as method in environmental and sustainability education in line with a Didaktik tradition of focusing on content and the experience of that content, we also align ourselves with this special issue's objective, which we see as to create a dialogue between environmental and sustainability education research and research on humour in education. As this paper focuses on providing examples of irony as method and exploring irony as method in a Didaktik-inspired approach to environmental and sustainability education, we will not engage directly with research on humour in education (Banas et al. 2011;Garner 2006;Gordon and Mayo 2014). However, we embrace such engagement with humour and see laughter not as a negative, exceptional reality of social life (Morreal 1983), but as something that sensitizes individuals to the strangeness and uncanniness of life. ...
This paper seeks to reclaim irony as more than a way of humorously pointing out that the times we live in are out of joint or coming to an end, instead emphasizing its potential as a productive force and method in both educational thinking and teaching practice. By interrogating the educative potential of irony as method and humorous experience in the Bildung-oriented Didaktik tradition, we argue that irony can reveal the tensions and dilemmas of didactic posturing in order to facilitate a productive decentring and self-alienating critique of our anthropocentric predicament in education. It can be difficult to tease out the inherent distance between educational content and its substance in times where educators are caught between crowded curricula and strict testing regimes, but this irony is rarely lost on either pupils or teachers. Irony, we argue, is more than a constant fissure in the efforts to streamline ideas about what constitutes the most efficient didactic approaches. Instead, it could be used as a method to make educative processes attentive to what didactic posturing might be missing and how self-alienation might be a premise of education as formation of the self.
... (Joseph Janes, et al) If used judiciously, classroom humour has the capability to "humanize, illustrate, defuse, encourage, reduce anxiety, and keep people thinking" (Torok, et al., 2004, p. 19). As explained by Garner (2006), "Well-planned, appropriate, contextual humor can help students ingrain information". According to James, a great deal of benefits can be accrued through the judicious employment of "content-related, non-hostile humour" (2004, p. 93). ...
The multiplicity of needs and interactions among the diversity of people of the world make it imperative, especially for the Developing World, to learn other language(s). In order to make learning of English as foreign language a success, in a Pakistani scenario, ways and means are required to make it enjoyable, easy, and fast. This research is intended to explore the views and observations of students and teachers regarding the use of humour in language institutes so that informed decisions may be taken regarding the appropriate use of humour in the context of teaching English in Pakistani setting. Humour is one such strong factor, which can help us in learning it efficiently, without much conscious effort in an imperceptible manner. But the use of humour involves some risks. Sometimes because of inappropriate use, humour proves counter-effective and instead of facilitating the teaching-learning process hampers it. At times it becomes offensive or degenerates into careless fun and leads to a circus-like environment. In order to get an idea about the mode of using humour in terms of appropriacy in English language institutes of Pakistan, the researcher conducted a study of 45 students and 11 teachers of the English department of Kohat University of Science and Technology, Kohat, by using a questionnaire employing Likert-scale. Results obtained from the data help us identify the loopholes in its use; they alert us to its improper usage so that humour can be utilized to enhance the language teaching-learning process manifold, instead of disrupting it.
This study, which was conducted with 364 preschool children and 47 preschool teachers in order to determine the relationship between preschool teachers' sense of humor and children's appreciation of the value of humor in their classrooms, is a relational survey model. The data of the study were collected with "Personal Information Form", "Multidimensional Sense of Humor Scale- Updated Turkish Form" used to determine teachers' sense of humor, "Humor Observation Form'' prepared by the researcher to determine children's appreciation of the value of humor, and "Humor Observation Form" and used with a 5-minute video with examples suitable for the stages in Paul McGhee's humor development theory. It was determined that preschool teachers' sense of humor was at a good level, and there was no significant difference between teachers' sense of humor and teachers' age, class size, and age of children in their classes. It was determined that the sense of humor of teachers with a seniority of 11-15 years was significantly higher than those with a seniority of 16 years and above. It was determined that children's appreciation of the value of humor was at a moderate level, and there was no significant difference between the gender of the children and both their appreciation of the value of humor and their level of finding the video funny. It was determined that there was a significant difference between the ages of the children and both their appreciation of the value of humor and their level of finding the video funny. 61-72 month old children's levels of appreciating the value of humor and finding the video funny were higher than 48-60 month old children. It was determined that there was no significant relationship between teachers' sense of humor and children's appreciation of humor.
Historical theories of humor rely on a classic distinction in philosophy, the distinction between reason and emotion. Such a distinction lends itself to qualitative rather than quantitative research. In the last 40 years, quantitative scholarship on laughter and comedy has become very popular, and often includes international and indigenous examples of laughter as a healing or teaching tool. This paper addresses the historical research on laughter and mockery, then shows the broad range of quantitative studies that have provided important data on the usefulness of humor in teaching and in memorization of material. While there are a variety of items that one might laugh at, there are also certain commonalities that transcend social groups.
Resumo: Introdução: A pedagogia freiriana aponta a educação como uma prática social consoante a uma realidade em transformação e direcionada às demandas de seu público. Na educação médica, aplica-se tal concepção quando o ato pedagógico é um modelo de cuidado para os discentes. Nesse sentido, estratégias que promovem a expressão de sentimentos de forma livre, lúdica e criativa são práticas que promovem o cuidado e contribuem para uma formação humanista e reflexiva, como preconizado nas DCN para o curso de graduação em Medicina. O objetivo deste relato de experiência é compartilhar uma experiência bem-sucedida da utilização de memes em uma atividade de feedback do componente curricular de Saúde Coletiva de um curso de Medicina de uma universidade federal brasileira. Relato de experiência: No último encontro do semestre, os estudantes, reunidos em pequenas equipes, foram orientados a criar memes que refletissem suas principais percepções acerca do módulo, ou seja, que destacassem os momentos mais marcantes e os aprendizados compartilhados ao longo do semestre. Em seguida, a turma toda se reuniu por videochamada, e um representante de cada equipe fez o feedback apreciativo do semestre utilizando o meme criado, além de compartilhar o “momento a-há” elegido pelo grupo, ou seja, o mais marcante e transformador do módulo. Discussão: Percebe-se que a utilização de memes e outros recursos lúdicos na educação médica é importante e recomendada, pois, além de tornar o processo de aprendizagem mais ativo e efetivo, o que está de acordo com os princípios das DCN, é uma forma de cuidado em saúde com os discentes. Além disso, essa dinâmica permite uma maior interação entre os alunos e estimula o senso de pertencimento. Ademais, a realização de feedbacks na graduação de Medicina é fundamental para o processo de aprendizado e também para o aprimoramento de habilidades necessárias à prática profissional, e essa atividade se mostrou facilitada e efetiva quando feita por meio do uso de memes. Conclusão: A utilização de memes na sessão de feedback se mostrou benéfica, criativa e salutogênica, além de ser uma estratégia que preza o cuidado e a expressão de sentimentos dos alunos, e, por isso, deve ser encorajada.
This study examined the use of humour in EFL classrooms in Islamic higher
education in Indonesia. It intends to find out whether Indonesian EFL
teacher educators used humour as pedagogy and how they used it. Using
a narrative inquiry method, it involved 25 EFL students undertaking
English Writing courses working in groups of two or three members to
write descriptive texts on the humorous moments in their classroom
process. Nine of them were purposively selected for analysis using
humour theories and removed the rest because of not humorous
moments. It revealed that the teacher educators used various kinds of
humour in EFL classrooms, such as humorous comments, lecturers’
humorous life stories, puns, and teasing students. However, most were
unrelated to the course materials they taught and did not reflect Islamic
values. In conclusion, this study has provided insights into humour used in
the Indonesian Islamic higher education, which is crucial for academics to
pay attention to using humour, such as not harming students.
A research project on using comics for teaching mathematics was initiated in one Singapore primary school. One class of Grade 5 (students of age 11–12) students was exposed to comics for mathematics instruction. This paper reports a case study of seven students’ perception of the features of the comics instructional package and how these features impacted their learning of mathematics. The students’ responses in an interview with the researchers were analysed using Thematic Analysis and presented using the Singapore mathematics curriculum framework. Four main features of the comics instructional package: (1) humour; (2) story narrative; (3) scaffolding provided by the questions and (3) visuals and four main themes: Increase in (a) enjoyment; (b) understanding; (c) appreciation of real-world applications of mathematics and (d) participation during lessons; were uncovered. The use of comics could potentially impact positively on developing students’ Attitudes, Skills, Concepts and Processes of the Singapore mathematics curriculum framework in learning mathematics.
Sharing personal teaching stories provides opportunities for enhanced wellbeing and learning for both experienced and pre-service teachers. This paper shares the results of a qualitative pilot study that used narrative inquiry to collect and share teacher stories. The research was conducted in two phases. The first phase collected humorous stories from experienced teachers recalled from the first years of their teaching career. Thematic data analysis investigated the wellbeing and learning impact on those teachers when sharing their stories. The second phase invited pre-service teachers to read and evaluate the impact of humorous stories when preparing for their first school placements. Thematic data analysis investigated the wellbeing and learning impact on pre-service teachers reading these stories. The analysis from both phases demonstrated recurring themes regarding the importance of teacher-student relationships for teacher wellbeing. The results also showed that the sharing and reading of stories had beneficial outcomes such as enhanced wellbeing and enhanced learning for both the teacher storytellers and the pre-service teacher readers. This study provides evidence that the inclusion of real-life stories offers a valuable addition to Initial Teacher Education programs as a way of developing professional and reflective practice.
Learning to speak a second language is a challenging experience for the majority of language learners. "Your whole person is affected as you struggle to reach beyond the confines of your first language and into a new language, a new culture, a new way of thinking, feeling and acting" (H. D. Brown, 2000, p. 12). Thus, teaching to speak a foreign language is also a defying undertaking where, if we want students to use the language in class realistically and autonomously, speaking class activities need to be 'productive, purposeful, interactive, challenging, safe and authentic' (Thornbury 2007: 90). That said, there is a widespread assertion amongst language teachers that in class "students do not talk at all" (Bahrani & Soltani, 2012. p. 26). Within that context, this study investigates the factors affecting student engagement to speak (SEtS) in a language class, which is an unexplored concept - from the students' perspective - linked to the fields of Student Engagement (SE), Willingness to Communicate (WTC) and Communicative Language Teaching (CLT). A mixed methods approach was used to obtain the data, including a focus group, student and teacher interviews, participant observation insights, self reflections and a survey. The data was analysed by using Grounded Theory (GT) strategies (Charmaz 2014; Glaser 2007; Pace 2012) within an analytic autoethnography (Anderson 2006) to search for an emergent theory that could explain what engages students to speak in a language class. The study is framed within a constructivist approach to data collection and analysis, and the research includes the participation of 388 Australian National University undergraduate students of French, Spanish, German and Italian at different levels of instruction, 14 teachers and the researcher's own voice, supplemented by the relevant literature. The journey is paved with quotes of students' and teachers' words and with self reflective ethnographic analytical memos. The findings, obtained through the process of coding, categorisation and theoretical development of the qualitative data, complemented by the quantitative results of the survey, are grounded on students' lived experiences as well as the researcher's. They suggest that SEtS is a socio affective process underpinned by three interdependent dimensions involving the teacher's personal qualities, the course content and the classroom environment. The students' level of connectedness to those three dimensions affects their self confidence and either engages or disengages them to speak in class. This study shows that what really matters to students is still the human condition underpinned by affective and behavioural components such as teacher-student relationships, motivation and anxiety, and it serves as a stepping stone for further research in the area of language pedagogy and SEtS, and particularly on the role the personality of a teacher may play in second language teaching and learning.
The onset of the COVID‐19 pandemic in 2020 put enormous pressure on educators to quickly adapt course materials for online delivery. In my case, a naturally humorous teaching style clashed with the arid world of computers in a virtual environment, leading me to believe in a reduced teaching effectiveness under such conditions and that my students would suffer from countless hours of dull screentime. This article narrates the story of how a simple technique —adding laugh tracks to pre‐recorded videos in Forestry undergraduate courses— was the foundation of a comprehensive approach to design online instruction with a high entertainment value. Several ideas to integrate humor in online (and face‐to‐face) learning are described based on these experiences and are accompanied by a brief theoretical background highlighting the value of bringing laughter to academic settings. Student feedback clearly indicated that the use of laugh tracks and other humorous elements was well received, especially during the challenging times of learning under lockdowns. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved
The uses of verbal humour in teaching language has change the face of education. Over the years, types of humour used evolve as it delivers different impacts towards learners' comprehension. In developing countries like Malaysia, little researches were done to investigate the learners' preference on the usage of verbal humours as they revealed to be influencing factors to the process of learning second language. The research analyses quantitative and qualitative data with theoretical analysis of scholarly sources in determining the impacts of verbal humour in education. The findings indicate that humour increases cultural awareness and language comprehension while learning language although teacher needs to be wary with the types of humour chosen as it may obstruct the learning process if used insensitively. The funding of the research is mainly from MARA research fund administered by Research and Innovation Centre (RICE) of Kolej University Poly-Tech MARA Kuala Lumpur (KUPTMKL). This paper investigates the use of verbal humour in teaching English as a second language among secondary schools in Klang Valley.
This chapter aimes to provide theoretical and practical knowledge on how humor-based STEM education can be implemented.
This three-year study evaluated the effectiveness of 10 system-atic strategies for using humor as a teaching tool: (a) humorous material on syllabi; (b) descriptors, cautions, and warnings on the covers of handouts; (c) opening jokes; (d) skits/dramatiza-tions; (e) spontaneous humor; (f) humorous questions; (g) humorous examples; (h) humorous problem sets; (i) Jeopar-dy! ™ -type reviews for exams; and (j) humorous material on exams. Student ratings at the end of three undergraduate and five graduate statistics courses assessed the extent to which each strategy reduced anxiety, improved the ability to learn, and made it possible to perform at one's best on problems and exams. Median student ratings of the three outcomes for all of the strategies across all of the classes over three years indicated consistent evaluations of Very Effective to Extremely Effec-tive.
In a field study, 70 college students unobtrusively tape-recorded 1 class presentation and evaluated the teacher as to appeal, competence, delivery, and teaching effectiveness. The presentations were content analyzed to identify key features relating to humor usage. Following a factor analysis of aspects of evaluation, correlation coefficients were computed between the teachers' frequency of use of the various types of humor and students' evaluations of their professors. Results indicate that for male teachers, usage of humor was generally positively related to appeal, delivery, and teaching effectiveness. For female teachers, only the use of hostile humor was associated with enhanced appeal. In contrast, female teachers' usage of some nonhostile forms of humor was associated with loss of appeal. (36 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
This study quantifies the effects of student behavior, teacher attributes, and course characteristics on class attendance
and performance. Several notable factors that influence attendance and grades are motivation, prior grade point average (GPA),
self-financing by students, hours worked on jobs, quality of teaching, and nature of class lectures. This study provides strong
empirical evidence of the positive influence of class attendance on student performance.
The use of humor by teachers in the college classroom was examined through a systematic content analysis of sample presentations from university classes. In addition to an assessment of the frequency with which humor was employed, characteristics of the type of humor used by college teachers were examined. It was determined that a substantial proportion of college teachers employ humor in presenting educational material. Moreover, several patterns of humor usage were discovered.
The biographical and educational backgrounds, the teaching careers, and classroom performances of nine professors who had won teaching awards were studied, based on interviews and classroom observation. Five of the professors were male, four were female, and they ranged in age from the early forties to late sixties. Six had doctorates and three had masters degrees. Common background elements noted were nonaffluent families, strong academic preparation, and motivation to seek a teaching career through an inspiring teacher. Common classroom performance elements were an enjoyment of teaching, an enthusiasm for the subject, excellent command of the language and delivery, the injection of humor, and the comparison of teaching to a theatrical performance. All subjects made an earnest attempt to make their students learn and tried to actively involve them through questions and discussions. Little use was made of notes or the lecture method. The teachers were divided on the necessity for them to conduct research and to publish. They questioned the priority given to research/publishing over teacher excellence in salary and promotion considerations. Attention is also directed to the way these professors would have been rated for merit salary increases at their university. (Author/SW)
Unless a relational base is developed, the teacher's effort to incorporate humor into instruction may go unrewarded.
Two studies investigating the influence of a humorous atmosphere on students' creativity scores are presented. In the first study 78 adolescents were shown humorous film clips and given a task requiring them to write captions for cartoons. A creativity test was subsequently administered to these students and to a control group. In the second study, Form A of the Torrance creativity test (TCT) with standard instructions was given to 130 adolescents. These were then divided into two groups, one experimental and one control. The experimental group was instructed to complete Form B of the TCT with humorous responses, while the control group was instructed to proceed as before. Results of both experiments showed that a humorous atmosphere significantly increases creativity scores. Several explanations for the findings were proposed and the practical applicability of the results in education were stressed.
A famous writer and editor uses a novel approach to recover from a crippling disease in which he had a 1 in 500 chance of recovery. The method he uses offers new evidence that Vitamin C may have virtues unrealized. His account has raised many eyebrows in medical circles.
Lectures and other class meetings are a primary means of instruction in almost all undergraduate courses. Yet almost everyone who has taught an undergraduate course has probably noticed that attendance at these meetings is far from perfect. There is surprisingly little systematic evidence, however, about attendance and its effects. There are three natural questions: What is the extent of absenteeism? How much, if at all, does absenteeism affect learning? Should anything be done about absenteeism? This article presents quantitative evidence on the first two of these questions and speculative comments on the third.
Using humor in the college classroom to enhance teaching effectiveness in "dread courses
- N Kher
- S Molstad
- R Donahue
Professors are from Mars, students are from Snickers
- R Berk
Which came first, the chicken or the egg? A foul metaphor for teaching
- R Garner
Humor in the classroom
- J Rhem
Best and worst university teachers: The opinion of undergraduate students
- W Brown
- J Tomlin
Brain research: Practical applications for the classroom
- R Glenn
Humor in the classroom: A handbook for teachers
- D Hill
Enhancing class attendance. National Association of Colleges and Teachers in Agriculture Journal
- F White