The pressure on teachers to produce results is increasing. The educational system is in the news with some disturbing results. A recent assessment of mathematics performance around the world ranked the United States twenty-eighth out of forty countries in the study. When the level of spending on education was taken into account, the U.S. sank to the very bottom of the list.
“When a comedian uses humor you ask "Is it funny?"
When you use humor in the classroom, you ask, "Does it work?”
- Unknown
The pressure on teachers to produce results is increasing. The educational system is in the news with some disturbing results. A recent assessment of mathematics performance around the world ranked the United States twenty-eighth out of forty countries in the study. When the level of spending on education was taken into account, the U.S. sank to the very bottom of the list.[1] Obviously something is wrong.
The focus of education is as it has always been, to teach the student. Mastery of the subject matter by the student for any given class is the essential goal, but one important aspect is often overlooked. The way information is presented to a student can impact their learning and retention. It is the individual teacher who primarily determines the quality of the student experience in any classroom.
The role of the individual teacher in producing student-centered learning cannot be minimized. Effective teaching and learning revolves around the connection made between the teacher and the student. The behavior of the teacher influences not only the quality of instruction but also the learning environment.
Teachers must be performers as well as educators and motivators.
When students were asked to list positive characteristics of quality teachers, they frequently mentioned a “sense of humor.” A review of the teaching philosophies of highly rated teachers finds the use of humor as an important part of their teaching strategies. Humor has been shown to increase and sustain student interest in learning.
Humor in the classroom may be the “spoonful of sugar that helps the medicine go down,” but does it actually facilitate learning, retention, and thinking? Does the very unique nature of the way the mind works to understand humor have a place in the learning process?
Interesting questions and the answer is both yes and no. The effects of “teaching with humor” research has yielded mixed results. Why would it sometimes be useful and at other times not be? It depends upon how the humor is used.
Classroom "magic" can be created through the use of humor when all of the educational elements come together and both the teacher and student are positive and excited about learning. Teachers can foster classroom "magic" by possessing a playful attitude and a willingness to utilize the power of appropriate humor.
Humor is most effective when it is directly related to the subject matter. It also can make any subject more interesting. In this day of shorter and shorter student attention spans, “sound bites” have gone from 30 seconds to 5-7 seconds. Students of today have come to expect everything to be made “entertaining” as well as educational. Humor may be the intellectual sugar that makes the educational medicine go down. Students get involved in a discussion where there is an opportunity for laughter because they like the experience of laughing and the results.
Physiologically, humor helps to connect left-brain activities with the right-brained creative side. This connection allows students to experience a “refreshing pause” and better absorb the information presented. Humor results in better information recall and an increase long-term retention.
An instructors’ use of effective humor in the classroom fosters mutual respect, provides commonalities and connections between the instructor and students and even increases class attendance. Teachers who use strategies that promote the connection between humor and learning usually provide students with their best school experiences.
Humor affects learning outcomes, particularly in "dread courses." A "dread course" is one like math. Students sometimes avoid these courses due to a lack of self-confidence, apparent difficulty of the material, or a previous bad experience with the content. Humor can diminish the anxiety and reduce the threatening nature of the material by changing the tone of the instructional process. By reducing anxiety, humor improves student receptiveness to alarming or difficult material, and ultimately has a positive affect on test performance.
A lot of humor requires a fairly complex mental process to “get it,” some doesn’t require anything at all. Physical humor is easy to appreciate without a complex mental process. Slapstick humor, like the Three Stooges and the Bugs Bunny and the Road Runner cartoons, are funny because of the incongruity of what you expect to see and what you actually see. “Incongruity” is defined as “something that does not seem to fit in with or be appropriate to its context,” so in some cases that makes it funny.
Humor Algebra is the brainchild of Dr. Todd T. Holms. [2] He believes anyone can explain what something is by explaining what it isn’t. Here is an example.
A + B = C
So…
C - B = A
Riddles and jokes do require complex mental processes to make connections and understand the incongruity jokes rely on to be considered funny. For example:
a. When is a stick like a man? When it’s a ruler.
b. What’s black and white and red all over? Embarrassed Zebra or a skunk with diaper rash, or the more intellectual “newspaper.”
c. Which month is a soldier’s least favorite? March
You can understand a joke without thinking it is funny, you might even think something is funny
without knowing why.
It is important to talk about the nature of education. Education teaches convergent thinking.
That means we teach students to look for the right answer. Thinking converges on the answer,
through a mental process, which leads to measurable, right-or-wrong responses. Humor, on the
other hand, promotes divergent thinking. You are encouraged to look for possibilities, not the
answer. As children we are divergent thinkers. You put ideas together in all kinds of ways,
creatively and freely. As you grow up your thinking patterns become more constrained, in part
because we become more goal oriented and more bound by conventions.
Teachers are powerful role models and as such can use appropriate humor in the classroom to enhance a sense of community. Humor can be nurtured and integrated into the classroom to foster a sense of openness and respect between students and teachers. When students feel safe, they can enjoy the learning process and each other. The thoughtful use of humor can contribute to teaching/learning effectiveness.
What’s the downside of Humor In The Classroom?
· Someone can always be offended
· Humor can be hurtful.
· Humor can distract from the subject matter too much.
· Humor is nearly always set in some kind of context that requires understanding to make it
funny.
· Most humor depends upon incongruity to be effective/funny. That requires or presumes that students understand the context and “get the joke.”
· The appreciation and more definitely the creation of humor usually requires that we use both hemispheres of the brain in conjunction.
When using humor in the classroom, the teacher must recognize that differences in culture, age, belief, gender, etc. can influence how the humor is perceived. Effective, appropriate, subject specific humor increases student attention, reduces anxiety, improves critical thinking, enhances concept learning, and creates a positive classroom-learning environment. Students report that teachers who help them learn by using such humor strategies create a less intimidating, more relaxed environment that encourages students to be better listeners. As a result, there is an increased level of comprehension and cognitive retention—and of equal importance—a more enjoyable class for the students and the instructor.
For more information on humor activities for the classroom, check out Cheryl Nason’s book THE FUN FACTOR available at www.cherylnason.com in the store.