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Abstract
Two experiments concerning humor in teaching and learning in higher education are presented. The first study used relevant humor in a one-semester statistics course in an experimental group and no humor in a control group. One hundred sixty-one students participated, and the results showed significant differences between the two groups in favor of the group learning with humor. No significant sex differences nor interactions were found. The second experiment was a replication of the first one, using 132 students in a one-semester introductory psychology course. The students (all females) were divided randomly into two groups. Humor was used in one, and the same teacher taught the second group without using humor. Again, significant differences were found: The group studying with humor had higher scores on the final exam. Explanations for the ways in which humor in teaching can influence student learning are given.
... A caveat is that the frequency of using humor in lessons should be carefully considered. Ziv (1988) found that three to four jokes or content-related humor per lesson were optimal since more than that may divert students' attention from the lesson. Other studies have rarely delved into the optimal frequency of the use of humor in each lesson, so this is an area worth exploring. ...
... Prior studies have documented the effects of instructional humor and provided empirical support for their impact on enhancing students' cognitive, emotional, and behavioral outcomes (Bieg & Dresel, 2018;Goodboy et al., 2015;Wanzer & Frymier, 1999;Wanzer et al., 2010;Ziv, 1988). The cognitive component refers to how students respond to teachers' instruction and their understanding and recall of the concepts taught (Fredricks et al., 2004). ...
... Instructional humor has been found to enhance learning or cognitive outcomes (Bieg & Dresel, 2018;Violanti et al., 2018;Wanzer & Frymier, 1999;Ziv, 1988), with students gaining a deeper understanding of the topic when content-related humor is used (Miller et al., 2017;Wanzer et al., 2010). Content-related humor helps students learn better, promotes clarity and understanding of the topic (Wanzer et al., 2010), and aids attention and retention of knowledge (Bieg et al., 2022;Ziyaeemehr et al., 2011). ...
Teachers' content-related humor is highly relevant for student outcomes in higher education (HE). Yet, teachers' use of different types of humor and frequency and other factors make generalizations about the effective use of humor on students' learning hard to establish. Specifically, little research attention has been paid to the impact of the use of a systematic humor pedagogical framework across different disciplines in HE. Here, we developed a standardized planned humor pedagogical framework, termed Planned Humor Incorporation System for Teaching and Learning Enhancement (PHISTLE), to systematically incorporate content-related humor into teaching practices to consistently generate beneficial learning outcomes across different disciplines. To evaluate the effectiveness of the system, we investigated the impact of content-related humor as exhibited in the identification with teachers' teaching style on students' learning outcomes in the sciences, humanities and social sciences disciplines. Retrospective pre-post surveys were distributed and semi-structured interviews were conducted to gain insights into the ways humor was used and their effects. Pearson correlation analysis of the surveys and thematic analysis of interview transcriptions indicate that content-related humor as exhibited in the teaching style was positively correlated to students' learning competence, personal attributes, and future behaviors, and may contribute to a more relaxed and stress-free classroom environment. Therefore, the strategic use of PHISTLE can likely generate positive learning outcomes in a replicable and generalizable manner.
... This is in line with recent discussions on learning methods (Misseyanni et al. 2018;Safapour, Kermanshachi, and Taneja 2019), experiential learning (Thomas 2009;Shephard 2008), and, in particular, active learning in environmental education (Buil-Fabregá et al. 2019;Kalamas Hedden et al. 2017;Ortiz and Huber-Heim 2017). Following these ideas, to reach its full potential, humor could be transformed from an addition to conventional teaching (Ziv 1988) to an innovative experiential learning method. ...
... 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.
... This way, pleasure is related to the exposure to happy stimuli, such as those caused by situations that include humor, which awaken in people an affective emotional bond due to the release of substances such as dopamine and serotonin, responsible for personal and emotional wellbeing [28,29]. Taking this into account, the educational benefits of using tools such as humor or surprise, which tend to elicit good memories and emotions among students, can (i) promote meaningful learning [30] and (ii) can improve student motivation, interest and performance [31,32]. ...
... Some theoretical studies point out the reasons that may be behind the above results: (i) the ability of humor to capture the attention and interest of students, while focusing that attention on the contents developed [45] or (ii) the instructive function of humor, in the sense of generating relaxed learning contexts in which the student feels comfortable [11,31,32,[46][47][48]. This high valuation of humor as a didactic resource agrees with the results of several previous studies [49,50], which analyze the perspective of university professors on the use of humor in the classroom and report high general valuations in this regard. ...
This research consists of a quantitative analysis of the perspective of a group of university professors from different areas of knowledge and from 19 different Latin American countries on the use of humor and memes in virtual learning environments (VLEs) in higher education. The data have been obtained from an own-design survey, and the answers have been analyzed in a descriptive and inferential way with the aim of knowing the opinion of the 401 participants (professors) about the didactic effectiveness of humor and the benefits and employability of memes in virtual classrooms. The analysis differentiates the sample by the professors’ area of knowledge as the main variable, and by gender, age and teaching experience. As results, the participants give a high evaluation of humorous didactic resources, particularly memes, although the evaluation of their usability in the classroom is intermediate. In this sense, it is shown that the area of knowledge has a significant influence on opinions in this regard.
... This way, pleasure is related to the exposure to happy stimuli, such as those caused by situations that include humor, which awaken in people an affective emotional bond due to the release of substances such as dopamine and serotonin, responsible for personal and emotional wellbeing [28,29]. Taking this into account, the educational benefits of using tools such as humor or surprise, which tend to elicit good memories and emotions among students, can (i) promote meaningful learning [30] and (ii) can improve student motivation, interest and performance [31,32]. ...
... Some theoretical studies point out the reasons that may be behind the above results: (i) the ability of humor to capture the attention and interest of students, while focusing that attention on the contents developed [45] or (ii) the instructive function of humor, in the sense of generating relaxed learning contexts in which the student feels comfortable [11,31,32,[46][47][48]. This high valuation of humor as a didactic resource agrees with the results of several previous studies [49,50], which analyze the perspective of university professors on the use of humor in the classroom and report high general valuations in this regard. ...
... Furthermore, this style is related with lower levels of psychological well-being and intimacy. Ziv (1988) concluded that the use of humour enhanced divergent thinking. ...
Humour would be an integral part of the teaching-learning process to get continuous attention from the students. Great teachers inspire their pupil in many ways and make teaching interesting (Powers, 2005). Torok. S, McMorris. R, & Lin. W, (2004) explored that if we use humour in a good way, it can increase students learning, improve our problem-solving ability and relieve stress. Kumar & Dhiman (2019) explored that Effective Teachers are more humorous and use more Self-Enhancing humour of humour styles as compared to their In-Effective teachers’ group. Mehta, A. (2022) concluded that teachers with a good sense of humour Increases Organizational Citizenship Behaviour of Teachers, Encourages People to Work Together, Enhance Overall Brain Power, Improves Decision Making and Aids in Learning. Kumar & Dhiman (2019) revealed that we can use humour for quality upgrading and for management of education along with dealing life at school or institutions. Moreover, this present paper provides some valid indication that humour may maximize the learning outcomes in the classroom settings. Furthermore, this paper presents the plans and strategy to make teachers have a formed opinion of the use of appropriate humour (Positive Humour) in delivery of content while teaching-learning process in classroom. Keywords: education, effective learning, humour, teacher....
... The quality of teacherstudent relationship is a strong predictor of children's successful school adjustment [15]. Usage of humor in teaching and learning in higher education has produced higher scores on the final exam [16]. ...
... It's a great way to lessen the tension mid-class and keep the students interested. Ziv, A. (1988) [25] conducted a research in Tel-Aviv about teaching and learning with humor; in keeping with her, there are many explanations why humor in the classroom can influence student learning as the experimental group scored a high score. Class story: It is another classic method that's effective in keeping the class entertained. ...
The current study investigates the usage of activities with online distance learning methods to increase the students' activeness. The study population is 30 high-school students that have shifted from the traditional frontal learning to distance learning. The instrument of the study is a questionnaire that contained 10 items that reflect on today's situation. The study findings showed that distance learning methods showed a significant effect on the students' overall activeness. The researchers recommend the use of distance learning should involve students, teachers and parents Otherwise, teachers and students might feel lost. Additionally, more studies on distance learning should follow up on this issue of inactiveness in distance learning lessons between multiple populations.
... Therefore, humor is worth to be considered in tests (Berk & Nanda, 2006). Findings by Ziv (2014) reveal that the use of humor during the lessons increases the scores at the final exam denoting that better teaching and learning has taken place during the course. ...
A smooth transfer of knowledge from instructor to student is what is desired in any learning context. One of the essential methods in making this happen is the use of humor in teaching. This study sought the influence of humor as a teaching tool on the student's engagement in classroom learning from students’ point of view and to find out the availability and extent of humor used as a teaching tool in the classes of Kandahar University from students’ perspective. The study employed a quantitative research-based survey design and used a questionnaire to collect data from a sample of 370 participants. The findings revealed that humor as a useful teaching tool positively influences students’ classroom learning engagement but it is not utilized by most teachers as a teaching tool.
... The findings aligned with the study by Falanga et al. (2014), which found that boys can feel humor better than girls. However, the results were different from the study by Ziv (1988), which indicated that gender did not affect EFL students' perceptions of TH in EFL classes. As inferred, Vietnamese female students may be more antagonistic to TH than their counterparts are. ...
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.
... In addition to the child's development, when integrated into educational settings, humour can benefit children's learning (Chabeli, 2008). Several studies have also suggested that the use of amusing cartoons or jokes promotes learning in the classroom by supporting the development of children's memory (Schmidt, 2002;Schmidt & Williams, 2001;Ziv, 1988). ...
The purpose of this study was to examine humour from the perspectives of 60-72-month-old children and their teachers in Turkey. A phenomenological method was used to collect data through semi-structured interviews, which included each child making a drawing about something they thought was ‘funny’. Teachers were also interviewed via semi-structured questions related to children’s humour. Data collected from 22 children and five teachers were analysed using McGhee’s humour development theory and Martin’s descriptions of four humour styles. The humour produced by our sample mainly included items related to incongruity. Teachers described children’s humour development in terms of how the children behaved within their social group, and some believing that children who do not make jokes about their peers, have no humour development. Our findings pointed to a lack of awareness of the benefits of humour to the learning process and early years’ education, particularly with teachers needing to account for age, developmental level and cultural differences.
... Teachers who have sense of humour and know how to use are likely to have their learners engaged in the lesson, especially those who spontaneously and effortlessly capture the attention of their learners by verbal and non-verbal humour .This is one of the appreciated criteria in the teacher since humour is a part of the personality that reflects the teacher's friendliness and and amiability among his or her learners. A study done by Ziv (1988) on two groups of learners revealed interesting results about the effect of humour in interaction , according to Ziv , learners who have been exposed to healthy humour during lectures of a whole semester interacted with their teacher considerably better than the learners of the other group who studied a whole semester with no humour from the part of the teacher .Moreover , Schmidt (1994) argued that humour makes the engagement of learners relatively easy because they prefer to pay attention to teachers who have a sense of humour , unlike the ones who completely neglect humour in their teaching style , these usually have relatively a little interaction in their classes . ...
... In the present study, we focused on the student-perceived contentrelated humor of the teacher, as it is associated with positive student outcomes at higher education, such as students' enhanced ability to process humorous messages (Wanzer et al., 2010), increased motivation and interest (Goodboy, Booth-Butterfield, Bolkan, & Griffin, 2015), more enjoyment and less negative emotions, such as boredom and anxiety (Banas, Dunbar, Rodriguez, & Liu, 2011;Wanzer & Frymier, 1999). Additionally, studies of higher education students have shown that content-related humor helps students remember the learning material and promotes recall (Wanzer et al., 2010;Ziv, 1988) and control in learning tasks (Wanzer et al., 2010). Teachers' content-related humor is more related to achievement activities than other types of teacher humor and increases attention to the learning material, promotes the elaboration and understanding of a task and thus supports students' control appraisals. ...
Following Pekrun’s (2006) control-value theory of achievement emotions, we investigated carry-over effects and cross-lagged relationships between student-perceived teacher enthusiasm and humor and students’ enjoyment and boredom both within and between university lectures. We used a latent state-trait approach to acknowledge the role of situational factors in this relationship. Data were collected from 559 university students (76% female, mean age 21.6 years) from seven different lecture courses. We assessed students’ self-reported emotions and student-perceived teacher enthusiasm and content-related humor over a period of four lectures at three random points during each lecture course. The analyses revealed that all variables were influenced by previous measures
within lectures; however, between lectures, only previous enjoyment and humor influenced the subsequent measure. When students experienced boredom, they perceived less teacher enthusiasm and humor. On the other hand, perceived teacher humor positively affected enjoyment within lectures.
... Walau bagaimanapun, berdasarkan carian pendekatan pengajaran menggunakan humor oleh penyelidik adalah kurang. Ini kerana kajian mengenai penggunaan humor dalam peringkat sekolah rendah masih terhad (Chaniotakis, 2010;Frymier et al., 2008;Ziv, 1988). Pengkaji tempatan juga menyatakan bahawa masih terdapat segelintir guru yang telah lama berkhidmat menggunakan kaedah tradisional dalam pengajaran Bahasa Melayu (Abdul Rasid & Shamsudin, 2015). ...
Penyelidikan ini adalah mengenai kaedah humor dalam pengajaran guru Bahasa Melayu di Sekolah Rendah. Pendekatan kajian yang digunakan adalah menggunakan kajian kualitatif. Manakala reka bentuk kajian adalah fenomenologikal. Instrumen yang digunakan dalam melaksanakan pengumpulan data adalah temu bual separa berstruktur, rakaman audio pengajaran dan analisis dokumen. Pemilihan peserta kajian seramai empat orang adalah secara bertujuan dan berdasarkan kriteria humor yang ditentukan oleh penyelidikan berpandukan kajian-kajian lepas mengenai humor dalam pengajaran. Analisis data telah dilaksanakan dengan menggunakan analisis tematik. Tema-tema yang dihasilkan adalah berdasarkan pengulangan elemen berdasarkan data yang diperoleh melalui hasil analisis dapatan daripada data verbatim para peserta kajian. Hasil kajian menunjukkan bahawa kaedah humor dalam pengajaran oleh peserta kajian adalah sesuai dengan konteks pengajaran Bahasa Melayu dan juga kepada para murid dalam suasana Pengajaran dan Pemudahancaraan Bahasa Melayu. Tema yang muncul daripada elemen dan kategori yang dihimpunkan ialah terdiri daripada tiga tema iaitu kaedah humor secara komunikasi, kaedah humor menggunakan bahan dan kaedah humor secara variasi pengajaran. Kesimpulannya, para peserta kajian menggunakan humor yang bersesuaian dan boleh diterima oleh murid di sekolah rendah. Kaedah humor yang digunakan juga adalah seiring dengan konsep pembelajaran menyeronokkan serta kaedah didik hibur yang ditekankan dalam Kurikulum Standard Sekolah Rendah bagi mata pelajaran Bahasa Melayu. Justeru, dapatan yang diperoleh daripada penyelidikan ini adalah diharapkan untuk dicadangkan sebagai satu panduan pengajaran penggunaan humor dalam pengajaran oleh guru Bahasa Melayu di sekolah rendah bermula daripada pendedahan di peringkat Jabatan Pelajaran Negeri seterusnya di peringkat Pejabat Pendidikan Daerah dan latihan dalaman di peringkat sekolah rendah kelak.
... This was a salient criticism, that was also articulated in feedback in the appeal section. As well as the social benefits of humor in learning environments, many studies also maintain that humor can improve levels of focus and attention, enhance critical thinking, stimulate a desire to learn more, and heighten the recall of lesson details (Bell 2009;Garner 2006;Hill 1988;Kaplan and Pascoe 1977;Ziv 1988). However, Banas et al. (2011) advises that, although humor is an effective means of gaining attention when it comes to interrogating the positive effects of humor on information retention, empirical evidence is far less unequivocal. ...
Cross-reality technologies are quickly establishing themselves as commonplace platforms for presenting objects of historical, scientific, artistic, and cultural interest to the public. In this space, augmented reality (AR) is notably successful in delivering cultural heritage applications, including architectural and environmental heritage reconstruction, exhibition data management and representation, storytelling, and exhibition curation. Generally, it has been observed that the nature of information delivery in applications created for narrating exhibitions tends to be informative and formal. Here we report on the assessment of a pilot scene for a prototype AR application that attempts to break this mold by employing a humorous and playful mode of communication. This bespoke AR experience harnessed the cutting-edge live-action capture technique of volumetric video to create a digital tour guide that playfully embellished the museological experience of the museum visitors. This applied research article consists of measuring, presenting, and discussing the appeal, interest, and ease of use of this ludic AR storytelling strategy mediated via AR technology in a cultural heritage context.
... Polls conducted by Davis and Brember (1993) and Worthy, Moorman, and Turner (1999) found that comics ranked high among primary school students' favorite reading lists. Ziv (1988), Schmidt and Williams (2001), and Schmidt (2002) found increased learning in students when humor is effectively used in comics. The clever interweaving of humor, relatable characters, and an interesting plot found in comics motivate students to learn the mathematical concepts subconsciously as they enjoy interacting with the content in the comics. ...
Developing primary school students’ interest in and getting them motivated to learn mathematics has been a perennial focus of educators. The use of comics for classroom instruction is an area gaining more attention from educators. In this paper, we review some existing education literature on the impact of comics on students’ cognitive and affective learning needs. We also propose a TSCT (Theme, Storyline, Character, Text) framework for educators to design instructional material using comics for mathematics instruction in the primary mathematics classroom. With the TSCT framework, we demonstrate the design of one comics mathematics lesson on the topic of Fraction.
Humor is a universal aspect of human culture, serving both social and cognitive functions. This study investigates humor's influence on infant learning, focusing on physiological, behavioral, and emotional responses. Building on previous research, we examined three questions: (1) Does humor affect infants' behaviors during a social learning task, such as looking, laughing, and smiling? (2) Does humor enhance learning, and is this effect age-dependent? (3) Can arousal, measured by heart rate variability (HRV), explain the relationship between humor and learning? We tested 88 infants aged 14–22 months, exposing them to either a humorous or neutral demonstration of a tool-use task. We assessed infants’ performance after demonstration and coded social gazes and emotional reactions. We also analyzed physiological arousal indicators, namely heart rate variability (HRV), through a connected wristband. Our analyses revealed that infants exposed to humorous demonstrations showed enhanced learning compared to those in the neutral condition, independently of whether they laughed or not. This suggests that laughing does not mediate the effect of humor on learning. Additionally, infants in the humorous condition looked more at the experimenter, which could indicate increased engagement or attentional processes. Finally, our HRV analyses revealed that infants who succeeded in the task exhibited higher HRV than those who did not. This study is the first to explore the mechanisms underlying humor’s effect on infant learning, emphasizing its complexity and the need for a multidimensional approach integrating cognitive, behavioral, and physiological factors.
Training agricultural extension workers to educate rural farmers on conservation agriculture (CA) techniques is a significant challenge, especially in areas with limited access to the internet. This article evaluates the effectiveness of a train-the-trainer (TTT) approach that integrates an offline digital library and competency-based training to address both the information and skills needs of extension agents in Rwanda. Using Harper et al.'s (2024) TTT framework, the study assesses a TTT workshop conducted with agriculture extension interns, focusing on their ability to train farmers in CA practices. The training combined access to SolarSPELL, a portable offline library, with interactive learning experiences to enhance both technical and interpersonal skills. Post-training survey results indicate that participants found the digital library highly beneficial in overcoming information access challenges, while the competency training equipped them with essential skills for their roles. The findings suggest that integrating digital tools into TTT programs, particularly in rural offline settings, can enhance knowledge dissemination and improve the efficacy of agriculture training programs. The article explores the implications for broader adoption of this approach in other regions and agricultural sectors.
Although humor is frequently used in face‐to‐face courses and computer‐based training, there is no consensus in the literature on its effects on students' learning. The aim of the present study was therefore to assess the cognitive effects of adding humorous drawings in a computer‐based course on both learning outcomes and learning behaviors (eye movements). It was assumed that humorous drawings would improve learning through the active resolution of incongruity. To isolate this effect from those of the illustrations, a nonhumorous drawings condition was also compared with the text‐only condition. Eye‐movement data showed that humor increased visiting duration for the drawings. Learning outcomes were not affected by the nonhumorous drawings, whereas humor had a positive effect on comprehension, though not on retention. This effect of humor was not mediated by visiting time for the slides. Our results argue in favor of the use of content‐relevant cartoons to improve students' learning.
Previous research has shown that humor can have an impact on people’s interpersonal relationships and the way they are perceived by others. In addition, it has been suggested that use of humor by teachers can be positive, but also negative. The aim of the research was to examine students’ perceptions of lecturers described as using different ‘humor styles.’ Using an online study, a sample of undergraduate students ( n = 201) were presented with one of 20 vignettes of a male or female lecturer using a particular style of humor (affiliative, aggressive, self-defeating, self-enhancing) or no humor, while they were teaching content described as ‘easy’ or ‘challenging.’ They responded to questions to assess: approachability of the lecturer, feelings of engagement, perceptions of the learning environment, and general perceptions of the lecturer. It was found that a lecturer using aggressive humor was perceived more negatively compared to when using the other humor styles, and that the adaptive styles of humor (particularly affiliative) had a positive impact on student perceptions, compared to when no humor was used. Self-defeating humor was perceived more positively compared to aggressive humor, but, unexpectedly, no differently to the other styles of humor. The findings will add to the growing literature on the use of humor in an educational context.
We examine how the language of online reviews has changed over the past 20 years. The corpora we use for this analysis consist of online reviews, each of which is paired with a numerical rating. This allows us to control for the perceived sentiment of a review when examining its linguistic features. Our findings show that reviews have become less comprehensive, and more polarized and intense. We further analyzed two subgroups to understand these trends: (1) reviews labeled “helpful” and (2) reviews posted by persistent users. These trends also exist for helpful reviews (albeit in a weaker form), suggesting that the nature of reviews perceived as helpful is also changing. A similar pattern can be observed in reviews by persistent users, suggesting that these trends are not simply associated with new users but represent changes in overall user behavior. Additional analysis of Booking.com reviews indicates that these trends may reflect the increasing use of mobile devices, whose interface encourages briefer reviews. Lastly, we discuss the implications for readers, writers, and online reviewing platforms.
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.
2022 International Conference on Multidisciplinary Research (MyRes)
8-9 December 2022, The Ravenala Attitude Hotel, Balaclava, Mauritius
Students process information in two modes: cognitive and experiential. Case studies and stories are generally used as tools for experiential information processing. This article uses memes as an instructional tool to deliver information for experiential information processing in a public speaking course. The effectiveness of memes as an instructional tool is assessed through a questionnaire in terms of their overall effectiveness and its memorability, concreteness, and course orientation. The findings suggest that memes can be used effectively as instructional tools like stories to make the students understand, discuss, and engage with course content.
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 prerecorded 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.
Hayatın çok farklı alanlarını farklı bakış açılarıyla değerlendirebilen, gülümsetebilen ve düşündürebilen insanların ortak özelliklerinden biri mizahtır. Bazı kesimlerce zekâ göstergesi olarak da ele alınabilen mizahın unsurlarının kullanımı ve mizah dozunun ayarlanamaması ise mizahın tamamen olumlu etkiye sahip olmadığını kanıtlar niteliktedir. Mizah kullanılarak yapılan öğretimin etkili olmasının, büyük ölçüde doğru mizah türünün kullanımı ve dozunun ayarlanması ile mümkün olabileceği ifade edilmektedir. Bu nedenle öğretmenler, sınıf yönetiminde otorite zedelenmesi ya da derse yönelik algının olumsuz yönde değişmesi risklerinden dolayı mizahın sınıf içinde kullanılmasına yönelik kaygı duymaktadır. Bu araştırmada, öğrencilerin, öğretmenlerinin sınıf içinde mizah kullanımına yönelik tutumlarının belirlenmesinde kullanılabilecek bir ölçme aracı geliştirilmiştir. Ölçeğin deneme formu olarak hazırlanan 30 madde 172 öğrenciye uygulanmış ve elde edilen verilere açımlayıcı ve doğrulayıcı faktör analizleri yapılmıştır. Faktör analizi sonucunda, 29 maddeden oluşan ve toplam varyansın % 50’sini açıklayan üç faktör elde edilmiştir. 29 maddelik ölçeğin iç tutarlılık katsayısı (Cronbach Alfa) .89 olarak hesaplanmıştır. Alt boyutlar için elde edilen iç tutarlılık katsayıları sırası ile .71, .83, .94’tür. Ayrıca öğrencilerin, öğretmenlerin derslerde mizah kullanımına yönelik tutum ölçeğinden aldıkları puanların cinsiyete göre farklılık gösterme durumunu belirlemek amacıyla uygulanan bağımsız gruplar t testi sonucunda erkeklerin puanlarının kızlardan manidar olarak yüksek olduğu belirlenmiştir. 5, 6, 7 ve 8. sınıf öğrencilerinin ölçekten aldığı puanların sınıf düzeyine göre farklılık göstermediği sonucuna ulaşılmıştır. Öğretmenlerin derslerde mizah kullanımına yönelik öğrenci tutum ölçeği olarak adlandırılan ölçeğin eğitim alanında kullanılabilecek, güvenilir ve geçerli bir araç olduğu sonucuna ulaşılmıştır.
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.
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.
Humor is applied in pedagogy to create a positive learning environment. Recent research focuses on the theories, effects, individual differences, and qualitative aspects of humor for instruction. However, there is a lack of studies focusing on quantitative features. Therefore, this research explored the quantitative characteristics of instructional humor in a naturalistic setting and applied techniques from natural language processing (NLP). This paper describes the results of two studies. The first study focused on instructional humor frequency and the placement of humor, while the linguistic features of instructional humor and non-instructional humor were compared in the second study. Two corpora were used in this research: TED Talks and user-submitted jokes from “stupidstuff.org” The results found that educators used humor 12.92 times for popular talks, while less popular talks only had 3.92 times. Humor is also more commonly placed during the first parts of the talk and lessens toward the end. There were also significant differences between the linguistic features of instructional and non-instructional humor in terms of readability scores and sentiment. These results provide a substantial update on quantitative instructional humor research and help educators understand how to use humor in the classroom in terms of quantitative and linguistic features.
This study investigated the effect of humor in religious stories on a child’s ability to remember, understand, and paraphrase content, as well as on enjoyment. Ages of the children were also considered. Participants watched one of two videos teaching the story of Saul’s conversion found in Acts 9:1–22. Although inclusion of humor did not have a significant impact, there was a significant effect of age on remembering, understanding, and paraphrasing. Previous exposure to the story increased overall scores, which suggests that repetition is key to a successful learning experience.
In this cross-sectional study, a total of 394 U.S. American and Thai college students took an online survey investigating how they perceived humor used by their foreign-born instructors and how those perceptions then predicted their self-perceived cognitive and affective learning. Moderated mediation analyses revealed both student groups understood affiliative humor and considered it appropriate and humorous which then enhanced their learning. Aggressive humor positively predicted Thai students’ learning through the mediating role of humorousness and negatively predicted U.S. students’ learning through the mediating role of appropriateness. Self-defeating humor enhanced U.S. students’ learning through the moderating role of appropriateness. This study clarified the influence of different humor styles on learning and extended the instructional humor processing theory by demonstrating the moderating effect of culture. With the internationalization of higher education and increasing number of foreign-born instructors, this pioneering study provided preliminary suggestions for effectively using humor in cross-cultural classrooms.
The current article was inspired by two incongruous phenomena: the perception of the lack of gender sensitivity and inclusiveness in a particular language textbook and the coronavirus disease pandemic. As we went completely remote over the past 2.5 semesters, students were encouraged to address those issues via chat and voice modalities. If there is a silver lining to the tragic events of the past 15 months, it was that remote, synchronous discussion was vastly more participatory than in-class discussion with regard to those and other issues. I argue that, in designing our textbook-dependent courses, we can use such deficiencies to our advantage through some of the tools that many of us were introduced to during the pandemic.
Humor has been used by educators in the classroom without active awareness of the possible impacts that it may bring on the students, particularly on their learning processes. At present, there is no existing humor typology in the Philippines, yet which can help educators determine the appropriateness of humor use in the classroom. Thus, this study aimed to develop a typology of humor utilized by Filipino teachers in the public schools. The nominated humorous teachers and their students served as the key informants in this study. They were asked to give examples of humor used in the classrooms and to categorize them according to their appropriateness. The responses were thematically analyzed resulting to the identification of appropriate, inappropriate, and context-dependent humor types. Future directions for humor studies were presented. 3
The relevance of the idea of humor at the social level expresses, from our viewpoint, the need to understand, assume and, why not, use it at the level of social communities. Under these conditions, we consider the usefulness and functionality/applicability of such an idea in educational terms, and in particular, at the level of the class of students. Such an idea is the very idea of humor as it is found in the educational dimension. Moreover, our interest is focused upon seeing and to what extent, the idea of humor can be considered to be an art, if we consider stylized / “aestheticized”, artistic, expressive criteria. That is why, the assumed purpose of this approach that we have achieved consists in an exhaustive analysis of the idea of humor and, implicitly, of the art of humor in education, as well as of the way in which it manifests and it is recognized at the educational level.
This study investigated teachers’ use of humor in school settings. Eleven lower secondary school teachers from different branches volunteered in this qualitative study. I collected data through individual, face-to-face interviews and used content and descriptive analysis methods for data analysis. In conclusion, the participants mostly said that they generally used positive humor types for useful goals in school settings. The results regarding the participants’ goals of humor usage indicated that using positive humor types in the styles of affiliative humor and self-enhancing humor can be useful for managerial and pedagogical efficiency in schools. As for the results of the metaphorical analysis, participants mainly use positive humor and, to some extent, situational humor. Affiliative humor style was the most preferred one. The results also implied that some participants use self-enhancing humor style and aggressive humor style as well. Overall, this research offers a more complete and detailed understanding of teachers’ use of humor in school settings and can be used to guide teachers and school administrators who want to use humor effectively in both managerial and educational contexts.
Humor merupakan salah satu teknik pengajaran yang digunakan dalam pengajaran dan pemudahcaraan di dalam kelas dalam usaha mewujudkan pembelajaran yang menyeronokkan dalam kalangan murid-murid di sekolah renda. Kajian awal bersifat konseptual ini dijalankan untuk meneroka penggunaan humor dalam pengajaran guru di peringkat sekolah rendah. Teori seperti Intsructional Humor Processing Theory (IHPT), Teori Relief, Teori Inkongruiti dan Teori Superioriti serta Teori Kecerdasan Emosi turut diaplikasikan dalam perbincangan dalam usaha untuk meneroka keunikan dan keberkesanan penggunaan humor dalam pengajaran di sekolah.
Prior studies examining humor in romantic relationships often assume that behavioral ratings obtained from different sources (i.e., self, partner, and observer) are interchangeable. However, it is unclear if humor ratings across sources reflect a common construct. The current study (N = 160 couples, Mage = 20 years, Mrelationshiplength = 15 months) investigated whether partner and observer ratings of humor offer unique information beyond actor ratings. Additionally, the relative predictive validity of humor ratings was evaluated. In general, the results showed that ratings tend to converge across sources. In addition, partner and observer ratings generally did not explain unique variance beyond self‐ratings. These results suggest that rating sources for assessing humor are largely interchangeable, with a few exceptions. This study offers recommendations for the methodological consideration of rating sources regarding humor reports in close relationships.
Previous studies have highlighted the benefits of pedagogical conversational agents using socially-oriented conversation with students. In this work, we examine the effects of a conversational agent’s use of affliative and self-defeating humour — considered conducive to social well-being and enhancing interpersonal relationships — on learners’ perception of the agent and attitudes towards the task. Using a between-subjects protocol, 58 participants taught a conversational agent about rock classification using a learning-by-teaching platform, the Curiosity Notebook. While all agents were curious and enthusiastic, the style of humour was manipulated such that the agent either expressed an affliative style, a self-defeating style, or no humour. Results demonstrate that affliative humour can significantly increase motivation and effort, while self-defeating humour, although enhancing effort, negatively impacts enjoyment. Findings further highlight the importance of understanding learner characteristics when using humour.
The article examines the issue of humour development as a professionally significant competence of a teacher. Conducted theoretical and empirical studies among students of secondary schools, tertiary education students, teachers and university professors have shown that students of secondary schools and university students, in comparison with school and university teachers, used humour more often in complicated situations. There were also differences in the choice of types of jokes by the respondents. The results of the study of humour reflects the ambiguous attitude towards humour that still exists in the teaching environment. The researchers have recorded the insufficient use of the possibilities of humour by teachers as an effective tool of pedagogical activity. The reason might be found in the current educational paradigm. A teacher is perceived as serious and even authoritarian. The development of this professionally significant quality is not given much attention in the process of training of future teachers. The use of humour as a pedagogical tool will help create conditions for the development of an individual style of professional activity, contribute to an increase in professional competence, pedagogical skills and will become one of the conditions for the effectiveness of solving various professional problems.
Mizah, olayların komik ve eğlenceli tarafını görmeye çalışmaktır. Mizah, bireylerin bilişsel düzeylerini değiştirerek farklı bir perspektiften düşünmelerine yardımcı olur. Mizah duygusu negatif bir olayla karşılaşılsa bile pozitif bakış açısı geliştirmeyi sağlar. Mizah beden ile ruhu kapsayan ve birbirine bağlayan bir enerji olarak değerlendirilebilir. Literatür, hemşireliğin ilk yıllarından itibaren az da olsa mizah kullanımının varlığını ortaya koymaktadır. Gelişen zamanla beraber hemşirelerin rolleri de değişmekte, mizah stili ve uygulamaları da tedavi ve bakımda kullanılmaya başlanmıştır. Mizahın sağlık üzerinde etkileri olduğuna dair çalışmalar bulunmaktadır. Mizahın bireye fiziksel, duygusal, sosyal ve bilişsel olarak birçok yararı vardır. Hastaların stres ve anksiyetesini azaltmak, baş etme mekanizmalarını daha iyi kullanmalarını sağlamak ve pozitif etkileşimlerini arttırmak amacıyla yapılan espri ve şakaları içermektedir. Mizah eğlenceli karikatürler, hikayeler, komik videolar, hemşirelerin hastalarla iletişim kurarken yaptığı şakalar ve hastane palyaçoları gibi farklı şekillerde olabilmektedir. Hastaya yapılacak girişimler sırasında dikkatini başka yöne çekmek, anksiyetesi yüksek hastayı rahatlatmak ya da hastanın tedaviye, tanıya veya ortama uyumunu arttırmak gibi hemşirelik bakımı alanlarında mizah kullanımı yaygınlaşmalıdır. Bu derlemenin amacı mizahın hemşirelik alanında kullanım amaçlarını incelemektir.
This paper investigates the relationships between forms of humor that conjure up possible worlds and real-world social critiques. The first part of the paper will argue that subversive humor, which is from or on behalf of historically and continually marginalized communities, constitutes a kind of aesthetic experience that can elicit enjoyment even in adversarial audiences. The second part will be a connecting piece, arguing that subversive humor can be constructed as brief narrative thought experiments that employ the use of fictionalized scenarios to facilitate an open, playful attitude, encouraging a space for collaborative interpretation. This interaction between humorist and audience is an aesthetic experience that is enjoyable in and of itself, as the feelings of mirth are intrinsically valuable. But connected to the "Ha-ha!" experience of these sorts of humorous creations is an "Aha!" or potentially revelatory experience that is a mixture of cognitive comprehension and motivated (emotional) response. The third part of the paper will attempt to go beyond the consciousness-raising element with an account of how such possible worlds created in the realm of imagination through subversive humor can bleed into the real world of flesh and blood people. Finally, I will analyze an example of subversive humor.
This study documents the use of humor in an instructional setting outside traditional classrooms. Specifically, it studied the use of instructional humor in training elite and aspiring gymnasts. Analysis of practice recordings, firsthand observations, and interviews with coaches, staff members, athletes and their guardians, revealed that coaches employed instructional humor in patterned ways and at patterned times to encourage the learning process. This study is the first to document that coaches used humor to address athletes’ potential identity harm due to failure during practice (labeled here, ‘identity distracting function’) and to reaffirm athletes’ relational standing with coaches and peers in spite of those failures (labeled here, ‘relational reaffirmation function’). The study also identified situations in which humor is inappropriate during training. Thus, this study identified new functions of instructional humor used during the learning process for aspiring elite athletes. The transferability of findings to other settings is also described.
Humor use in an audio-taped lecture by a male or female professor was varied to produce versions with (a) no humor, (b) sexual humor, (c) other-disparaging humor, and (d) self-disparaging humor. After exposure to the lecture materials, male and female subjects' perception of the lecturer's intelligence and appeal was assessed. On measures of appeal, significant transverse interactions between sex of speaker and sex of respondent were obtained for both sexual and self-disparaging humor. Effects were in opposite directions, however, for these two types of humor. The use of self-disparaging humor led to higher ratings of appeal when speaker and respondent were of the same sex. In contrast, the use of sexual humor led to higher ratings of appeal when speaker and respondent were of opposite sex. The variations in humor had no appreciable effect on the perception of the lecturer's intelligence.
Of 3 educational programs, 2 were manipulated to contain (a) no humor or humor in (b) a slow pace, (c) an intermediate pace, or (d) a fast pace. The amount of humor was kept constant by combining episodes into blocks for the slower-paced versions. 60 1st and 2nd graders, ostensibly in a waiting period, watched TV, and their program choices were unobtrusively monitored. Three programs were available at any time: One never contained humor; of the other 2, with the conditions systematically rotated, one contained no humor and the other contained humor of a particular pace. The presence of humor greatly facilitated selective exposure to an educational TV program. This facilitation increased with the pace of the employment of humor. Fast pacing (i.e., the frequent placement of short humorous inserts) was most effective in quickly generating and maintaining selective exposure. (8 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Studied the effect of humor and humorous examples on the comprehension and retention of lecture material. Intact classes of university students ( N = 508) viewed either a serious lecture or 1 of 3 versions of a humorous lecture. The 3 versions of the humorous lecture included humorous examples related to the concepts in the lecture (concept humor), unrelated to the concepts (nonconcept humor), or a combination of concept and nonconcept examples (mixed humor). A test of comprehension and retention was given twice: immediately after the lecture and 6 wks later. Immediate comprehension was not facilitated by the use of humorous examples. Upon retesting, however, retention of concept humor material was significantly improved by viewing a lecture with humorous examples illustrating concepts. Earlier research findings are accounted for in terms of these results. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
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)
MOST THEORIES IN THE AREAS OF PERSONALITY, CLINICAL, AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY PREDICT ONLY THE DIRECTION OF A CORRELATION, GROUP DIFFERENCE, OR TREATMENT EFFECT. SINCE THE NULL HYPOTHESIS IS NEVER STRICTLY TRUE, SUCH PREDICTIONS HAVE ABOUT A 50-50 CHANCE OF BEING CONFIRMED BY EXPERIMENT WHEN THE THEORY IN QUESTION IS FALSE, SINCE THE STATISTICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE RESULT IS A FUNCTION OF THE SAMPLE SIZE. CONFIRMATION OF 1 DIRECTIONAL PREDICTION GENERALLY BUILDS LITTLE CONFIDENCE IN THE THEORY BEING TESTED. MOST THEORIES SHOULD BE TESTED BY MULTIPLE CORROBORATION AND MOST EMPIRICAL GENERALIZATIONS BY CONSTRUCTIVE REPLICATION. STATISTICAL SIGNIFICANCE, PERHAPS THE LEAST IMPORTANT ATTRIBUTE OF A GOOD EXPERIMENT, IS NEVER A SUFFICIENT CONDITION FOR CLAIMING THAT (1) A THEORY HAS BEEN USEFULLY CORROBORATED, (2) A MEANINGFUL EMPIRICAL FACT HAS BEEN ESTABLISHED, OR (3) AN EXPERIMENTAL REPORT OUGHT TO BE PUBLISHED.
70 kindergarten and 1st-grade students were exposed to an educational TV program that contained (a) humorous segments that were interspersed at a comparatively slow pace, (b) the same humorous segments that were interspersed at a comparatively fast pace, (c) no humorous inserts, (d) slow-paced nonhumorous inserts, or (e) fast-paced nonhumorous inserts. Information acquisition was measured after exposure. Both humor conditions produced results that were superior to those of any of the no-humor control conditions. Although there were only minor differences between the various controls, the humor conditions differed: Fast pacing of humorous inserts produced the facilitatory effect on information acquisition more rapidly than slow pacing. No appreciable sex differences were observed. Ss' visual attention and hedonic reaction to the various stimuli were also assessed. (20 ref)
Eighty elementary school children completed an intentional and an incidental associative learning task. Each of three groups stratified on intelligence and creativity made either humorous, unusual, or usual associations among common objects. Intentional learning, only, differentiated IQ groups (p<.05); incidental did not. Ss who made unusual associations recalled more information in both incidental and intentional learning than those making usual associations (p<.05) . Humor facilitated retention resulting from incidental learning (p<.05) but not intentional. Intelligence, creativity, and humor were correlated. The independence of creativity and intelligence was verified by a low correlation (r = .29); however, sense of humor correlated highly with both creativity (r = .89) and intelligence (r = .91) .
It is often claimed that humour is a desirable characteristic of teaching and learning. Justifications for the use of humour include the promotion of understanding, holding the attention of students, managing disruptive behaviour, creating a positive attitude to the subject matter, and reducing anxiety. Empirical studies of the connections between humour and learning are reviewed. These indicate that humour, provided it is not used to excess, can increase attention and interest and help to illustrate and reinforce what is being taught. It is suggested that the presentation of humorous material involves skills which can be learnt through practice and that staff development programmes should provide opportunities for academics to acquire such skills.
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.
Abstract High school students viewed a video‐taped lecture of a professional actor playing the role of a teacher. Four films were presented, one of which was a control film in which no humour was used. The other three films contained (a) self‐disparaging humour (directed toward the teacher), (b) other‐disparaging humour (directed toward the students, and (c) mixed humour (a combination of a and b). All 186 10th graders from four classrooms participating in the experiment were given sociometry of humour tests. Results showed that the teacher using mixed humour received the highest evaluations on ‘appeal’ and ‘originality’ factors; the other‐disparaging teacher was perceived as most powerful, while the teacher not using humour at all was perceived as the most systematic in his teaching method. The sociometry of humour test revealed that students with a sense of humour are more appreciative of a teacher using humour, than are students who do not possess this attribute.