Classroom humor makes grade as teaching tool

Baggage of higher gas prices
February 28, 2012
A matter of mission administered: Learning center readies youth for educational lives
February 28, 2012
Baggage of higher gas prices
February 28, 2012
A matter of mission administered: Learning center readies youth for educational lives
February 28, 2012

They might not want to start class with a joke of the day, but educators are finding that the incorporation of humor with subject presentation enhances student performance and simply makes learning and instructing more enjoyable for all involved.


“To be honest, I think I’ve always had trouble connecting my humor and jokes with students,” Nicholls State University computer science instructor Ray Giguette said. “I do better with the faculty, but I’ll try again.”

Giguette was responding to his having received a lesson in mirth from Johns Hopkins University professor emeritus Ronald Berk during the initial NSU 2012 spring semester faculty meeting.


 

Lesson Launched


Berk, who has taught medical statistical procedures, today is on a mission to enlighten educators about what he has learned and made a living doing by introducing appropriate humor into teaching with results of reducing anxiety, generating interest in subject material, and enhancing student performance.

Having begun his teaching career with the inner city public schools of Washington, D.C. during the 1970s, Berk soon learned that traditional teaching methods were being lost in a setting where text books and uniform curriculums did not impress the targets of classroom lectures.


“The kids had no interest in learning anything,” Berk said. “That experience of using anything I could to try and sell the material is where I started picking things up. At Hopkins it became more systematic and I started using humor to cover up my incompetence in clinical areas. It was such a hit I started adding more material.”


In time, Berk began experimenting with different forms and uses of humor in the classroom, and became one of a handful of research educators that took a closer and more academic look at what laughter could add to a lesson plan.

“The research I did at Johns Hopkins was done so people who do not have any special humor or comedy gifts could use humor as a way of breaking down barriers with students, especially with difficult subjects,” Berk said.


 


Research Results

Berk and others who have examined the use of humor in the classroom found not only results in terms of student performance, but also the do’s and don’ts when it comes to implementing this teaching tool.


One study, conducted at Earlham College, found that making use of humor in the classroom resulted in a 4.5 percent improved classroom participation and in some cases brought individual improvement by two letter grades.

“Overall, the data shows that there was an increase in engagement that led to better understanding,” the Earlham study said. “Students with significant gains in their test scores exceeded students that showed any significant decline by a three-to-one margin.”


Humor researchers were quick to point out that one size does not fit all instructors or subject matter in terms of style or material used and that appropriateness is essential to gaining positive results.

Material from Performance Learning Systems pointed out that humor used in the classroom is intended to be a way to motivate students, not become a standup comedy routine.


“Use facial animation: smile, make lively expressions and let your eyes sparkle,” the PLS instructions said. “Make sure your non-verbal messages match our verbal messages … if you say something intended as humor, but your body language is serious, your students could perceive sarcasm.”


Sarcasm is one way that humor is often expressed, but which experienced educators told others to avoid because of its negative overtones. They also said to stay away from anything that could be considered offensive or explicit such as racial, sexual, political or religious directed comments.

“Avoid offensive humor such as sarcasm, reticule, put downs, profanity, vulgarity, sexual content and sensitive personal issues,” Berk said. “The most common positive form of humor in the classroom are stories and antidotes.”


PLS experts said when using humor effectively, the instructor is better to position himself as the butt of the joke, because oneself is the safest target and it does not single out any specific student.

Experts also said to keep humor appropriate to lesson content. An example was given to have students write a report using facts from the lesson but incorporating those as lyrics to the tune of a favorite song.


“I think the more comfortable a teacher can make the classroom the better kids are going to do,” Houma Junior High School career studies teacher Trez LeBlanc said. “We work a lot with setting the tone and a lot of that is done with humor. It may be a silly story or telling them how to handle a situation with humor, but yes, it does make a difference.”


LeBlanc said during her 14 years in the classroom she has learned that by making students feel safe and comfortable, teachers motivate them to want to perform, if for nothing else than to please their instructors.

Berk said that many teachers exercising humor in the classroom do so with offering comic statements in a syllabus. “This helps ease anxiety on the first day,” he said. The mirth expert added that he also would include an obviously incorrect but humorous selection on multiple choice tests to offer a sense of comfort for the test taker in what for many is a stressful experience.

 

Not Getting It

Humor, like any approach, does not hold a 100 percent guarantee for success. There are some students that simply do not get the joke and others that do not want to get it. Likewise, there are some instructors that cannot pull it off.

“I have had time, particularly with graduate or doctoral students, that some have said they didn’t pay to have their time filled with silliness,” Berk said. “Not everyone responds, but that is part of knowing your audience and what is appropriate for the setting. There are some classes and subject matter, just like life situations, where humor is inappropriate at the time. I am very conservative as to what I see as appropriate in the classroom, and you do not see that in the culture at large.”

Other humor in education experts agree that not all situations are appropriate for a laugh or chuckle, such as instances where a tragedy is involved or where an individual might be singled out in an uncomfortable manner.

 

Teaching Tips

The elements to making humor work in the classroom include knowing the audience. Junior high school students do not have the same sense of humor as college students. It is important to understand what kinds of jokes or remarks would speak to and not turn off any group in their respective settings.

Humor must be exercised in terms of appropriateness. This requires finding a balance with instruction and joking. Too much emphasis on one side would lose student attention and with too much on the other, a teacher soon loses control of the room.

Resist jazzing up material and coming across as a cheap Las Vegas lounge show. Humor should be incorporated in the material and is most effective when done in a subtle manner. On the other hand, many instructors find that the use of props, pictures and even Power Point presentations with humor attached is effective.

Involve everyone into the joke. Avoid alienating individuals by making them the targets. Resist going over their heads of understanding of students or below their level of sensibility.

Multiple tools such as impressions, puns and phrases with double meanings are used by mirth-motivated instructors. They also recommend being prepared with a follow-up line just in case an intended point making joke in the subject matter bombs.

It is good to be creative with the expression of humor in lesson material, but it is always essential to be yourself. Behaving like someone else never works. The experts contend that being comfortable with a style that fits you will make students comfortable as well. If one is not honest with being oneself, students both sense it and will reject it.

Most of all, experienced instructors noted that teachers need to remember that even when having a good time they must be seen as the authority figures. Know where and when to draw lines of appropriateness.

 

Participant Proclamations

Students asked in casual and unscientific conversation about the use of humor in the classroom said they like it and agreed that when used appropriately it does make material more interesting.

“Humor is a very individual thing,” Giguette said. “It’s not going to work if it is not in character with you. With teaching you have to get some confidence in using humor. You might be confident in your subject material, but if you are trying to think about how to get this across to students, that is a different thing. I think it is the kind of thing we have to pay attention to so we become better teachers. ”

“I tell my students I want to be held accountable,” Berk said. “If I say something inappropriate I need to live up to it and apologize for it. Students respect that.”

LeBlanc said humor is used effectively as a tool to build relationships with students and get them interested in the lesson. “I think everyone should laugh at least once during the class period,” she said.

So, have you heard the one about the three teachers that walked into a classroom …

 

Terrebonne High School English teacher Julie Bernard leads class to instill the foundation of language. Many instructors are also incorporating humors into their lessons, which research shows enhances learning. 

MIKE NIXON | TRI-PARISH TIMES