Laughing with the lecturer: the use of humour in shaping university teaching (original) (raw)
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The Role of Humour in Teaching: Teacher Training Students’ Image of Teacher and Views on Teaching
Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Philologica, 2020
A common question in teacher training is what trace is left behind by (many years of) institutional learning, that is, what kind of teacher and teaching image a teacher candidate starts his or her preparation with. The main determinants of becoming a teacher are the experiences gained as a student. The source of their approach and views is personal school experience, which can influence their professional development. In our study, we will discuss how future teachers think about the relationship between humour and school, humour and education. In the initial phase of our study, we asked first-year teacher training students about good and bad teachers in order to gain an insight into their views on teachers’ personality and work. After this, we used metaphor analysis to investigate teacher characteristics/qualities that approached the concept of teacher to novel, humorous-playful images. In this phase of our study, we focused on what effective communication tools they have for dealin...
The European Journal of Humour Research
Positive humour can facilitate learning. From an educational perspective, it is important to examine how, when and why humour elicits a positive feeling in students, which, in its turn, creates an environment conducive to learning. Previous studies in humour research have focused on the generally perceived impact of humour in educational settings. Reflection on this idea gives rise to two questions. Will the use of intentional humour as a pedagogical tool indeed be perceived as such by students? Also, will a lecture containing positive humour affirm the impact of humour reported in academic literature? The researchers therefore decided that a lecture containing intentional humoristic elements would be presented to two groups of students with a view to determining their responses. To accomplish this, a mixed-methods approach was used, one employing a concurrent embedded nested design to explore the role and impact of intentional humour in two higher-education classrooms. A Likert-sca...
Lecturing and the limits of laughter
Faculty of Education, 2014
The literature on humour in teaching frequently defaults to a series of maxims about how it can be used appropriately: 'Never tease students', 'Don't joke about sensitive issues', 'Never use laughter for disciplinary purposes'. This paper outlines recent research into the boundaries of humour-use within teacher education, which itself forms one part of a broadly-based study into the use of humour within tertiary teaching. This particular part of the research involves semi-structured, in-depth interviews with university academics. Following the 'benign violations' theory of humour-wherein, to be funny, a situation/statement must be some kind of a social violation, that violation must be regarded as relatively benign, and the two ideas must be held simultaneously-this paper suggests that the willingness of academics to use particular types of humour in their teaching revolves around the complexities of determining the margins of 'the benign'. These margins are shaped in part by pedagogic limitations, but also by professional delimitations. In terms of limitations, the boundaries of humour are set by the academic environment of the university, by the characteristics of different cohorts of students, and by what those students are prepare to laugh at. In terms of delimitations, most academics are prepared to tease their student, and many are prepared to use laughter as a form of discipline, however their own humour orientation, academic seniority, and employment security play a large role in determining what kinds of humour will be used, and where boundaries will be set. The central conclusion here is that formal maxims of humour provide little more than vague strategic guidelines, largely failing to account for the complexity of teaching relationships, for the differences between student cohorts, and for the talents and standing of particular teachers. 'If the opportunity is there, I tend to always take it; and in a classroom where there is no humour, I feel like there's a lack of life.' Lecturer 1, female This should not come as any great surprise. Those who have success making people laugh in general social contexts are unlikely to dispense with this communication and engagement strategy
INVESTIGATING INSTRUCTORS' PERCEPTIONS ON THE USE OF HUMOUR IN HIGHER EDUCATION
In psychology, humour refers to 'a specific positive emotion that is elicited by the perception of playful incongruity, usually occurs in an interpersonal context, and is typically expressed by laughter' (Martin, 2007). Existing literature has shown that it is a useful tool in teaching various subjects especially in primary and secondary education. Our study was designed to scrutinize the perceptions of EFL instructors on the use of humour in higher education to reveal whether this is also true for higher education. 42 EFL instructors working at school of foreign languages at three state universities in Turkey participated in this study. A questionnaire consisting of multiple choice and open-ended items was prepared and administered to the participants administered to elicit their opinions on the significance of humour in language education offered to undergraduate students who would attend various programmes in the following academic year. The overall qualitative and quantitative analysis of the findings demonstrated that the EFL instructors tend to have positive perceptions about the use of humour in language classes; however, they have slight hesitations with its use. The study ends with a couple of pedagogical implications on related findings, and a few suggestions for further research.
Exploring teacher-initiated humour in Academic English classes
The European Journal of Humour Research, 2021
As a subject focused on teaching grammar forms needed for academic studies and genres of academic writing, Academic English may seem tedious at times. Sometimes it is a complex subject for students who are fresh to academia and it needs a peculiar didactic approach to provide a smooth transition of students from general to academic English writing at a university level. One of these approaches may be using humour during classes. The current research explores teacher-initiated humour in Academic English classes at the Westminster International University in Tashkent and its effects on students. Besides, it seeks answers to questions as to what types of humour teachers employ during the class mostly, how often they use humour, as well as students’ and teachers’ recommendations given on how to use humour in class. This study uses both qualitative and quantitative data extraction methods in the form of an online questionnaire with students and a semi-structured interview with teachers. ...
2010
Why Did the Professor Cross the Road? How and Why College Professors Intentionally Use Humor in Their Teaching. (May 2010) Karen Hildebrant Buckman, B.A., Culver-Stockton College; M.S., Central Missouri University Chair of Advisory Committee: Dr. M. Carolyn Clark College professors face many pressing challenges: staying current in their disciplines, becoming familiar with new technology, responding to national accountability issues, publishing scholarly research in their fields, and facilitating student learning in their classes. Teaching and learning are complex processes. Humor is a powerful instructional resource. The purpose of this study is to understand how and why college professors intentionally use humor in the classroom and what influence humor has on their teaching. This qualitative study focuses on ten college professors who have a reputation for using humor in their classrooms. I conducted semi-structured interviews with these faculty and made four classroom observation...
Higher education in India and its future direction are not straight forward and simple. The focus is always on volume and seldom on quality. Some important factors like national agenda or a collective consciousness amongst all the stakeholders are sometimes overlooked. The multicultural environment of Indian institutions adds to its complexity. It is always a delicate balance for any teacher to maintain in a classroom pedagogy requires a formula but the softer aspect of the profession requires an informal approach. This dilemma usually happens when as a teacher there are many strategies we use to interact with students and keep their motivation up.
Laughter in university lectures
Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 2012
Keywords: Study skills Staff development Inter-cultural communication British Academic Spoken English (BASE) corpus Michigan corpus of Academic Spoken English (MICASE) Engineering Lecture Corpus (ELC)
Educators, Students and Humour in the Classroom: Creating a Positive Pedagogical Experience
The use of humour in a pedagogical setting has always been viewed as frivolous and not to be encouraged. However, researchers and educators alike have discovered that humour can create a positive environment for students to learn and develop social networks, including memory and behaviour skills. The history of humour has changed as the world develops and changes, cultures begin to review their educational systems and teaching methodologies. The following paper on humour in the classroom discusses theories on humor and teaching and its effect in the learning environment as a teaching tool.