Teachers as… Humor Experts!

In this article I am trying to explore the “hidden relationship” of Science with Comedy which, indeed, seem to have a lot in common. enjoy!!!

Educators are important to maintain the sense of ‘play’ in teaching.

– Kenneth J. Eble, author, academic

And who would disagree that where there is play, there is laughter? Faces are pleasantly distorted by the contractions of facial muscles that reflect only to a small degree the wealth of emotions that are generated by the fun and sometimes funny element inherent in play: humor.

The educator as a ‘performer’? Let’s get serious…

However, it seems that while for most people humor is important for managing their everyday lives, in the school reality of the educator, and more specifically in teaching, the use of humor has a rather peripheral role. A study conducted on 766 primary education teachers showed that Greek teachers do not believe that humor is an important characteristic of an educator, even ranking it in one of the last positions in a list of characteristics. Educators stated that the most important characteristic for an educator is to be a ‘role model’ for their students and not to use, even in small doses, humor in the classroom. And all this despite the effort that has been started by various scientists in recent years globally to use humor increasingly as a tool for effective Science Communication.

But while it is not uncommon to hear academics referring to teaching and lecturing as ‘performances’, what is uncommon is to hear this description actually evaluated.

– Kevin McCarron, academic and comedian

Really, isn’t it so? Every time we teach in a class, don’t we give some sort of 45-minute ‘performance’? Carefully hiding our personal worries, don’t we strive to utilize every pedagogical means from our rich ‘quiver’, in order to engage our students more in the learning process? Our stage may be simple, a desk and a blackboard in most cases, but that is of little importance, precisely because the ‘performance’ is given by the educator himself, who struggles to activate as many members of an extremely heterogeneous audience: charismatic students but also indifferent students, popular students but also marginalized students, carefree students, but also students with problems at home and, in any case… students who are dominated by the ‘tsunami’ of teenage hormones. To understand more about how educators can apply humor and science in their storytelling to engage students, you can refer to the blog post about adding a little OCD to our lives.

Already in higher education, a pleasant change has begun to take place in recent years. The need for academics to more deeply engage their students in the learning process has led to the emergence of a new kind of lecture, which is internationally known as “edutainment”. As indicated by the term itself, it is essentially a hybrid mix of education and entertainment, which relies on more informal and less teacher-centered forms of teaching. This is because, from a historical perspective, university teaching is a type of performance, especially in the case of lectures that are held in large auditoriums. There, humor proves to be the perfect vehicle for edutainment. It can function as a trigger of emotion, as an attractor of attention, as an ice breaker of the relationship between speaker and listener, but primarily as a catalyst for transitioning the student into higher-speed engagement in learning. For a deeper understanding of how humor can boost learning experiences, check out the post on Humor Enhancer vs. Humor Booster: And the winner is… .

Educators and Stand-up Comedians of the world, join your special forces!

But now, pay attention to this:

If teachers are performers then the one branch of performance they are connected most closely to is stand-up comedy. Only the teacher and the stand-up comedian rely on the continuous interaction between themselves and the people in front of them.

– Kevin McCarron, academic and comedian

However, both the educator and the stand-up comedian differ from all other performers (dancers, actors, musicians, etc.) in that they ‘demand’ from their audience to simultaneously perform a different type of performance through their active participation in the process unfolding in space and time. Only in this way can the audience decisively contribute to shaping a unique atmosphere of interaction as well as the dynamics of this peculiar but alluring ‘bio-community’. And I say this because I do not know any actor or dancer who expects the spectators of their performance to stand up and deliver their monologue or perform their pirouettes.

So, what I’m trying to say is that although teaching as an act is by no means a joke, educators may resemble stand-up comedians much more than we initially believed. In fact, every educator, regardless of their educational level, can learn a lot from stand-up comedians about the ability and techniques to shape a particular interaction with their audience—an interaction that will make the learning experience of the participants as unique and unforgettable as possible! And honestly, I see no reason why a teaching act shouldn’t be unique…

Thought Sciеncе and Comеdy wеrе worlds apart? Think again!

Rеady to takе thе plungе into thе witty world of sciеncе? Join us in this uniquе journеy whеrе wе brеak down complеx sciеntific concеpts with a dash of humor. Explorе thе SciеncеLaughs univеrsе on our wеbsitе and discovеr how wе’rе making lеarning sciеncе a laughing mattеr!

Looking for a dosе of humor in your sciеncе class or еvеnt? Chеck out our What I offer pagе for a variеty of humor-infusеd sciеncе workshops and contеnt. Bеcausе at SciеncеLaughs, wе firmly bеliеvе that a good laugh can lеad to grеat lеarning. Kееp laughing, kееp lеarning!

Rеfеrеncеs

Buckingham, D., & Scanlon, M. (2003). Education, entertainment and learning in the home. Open University Press.

Chaniotakis, N. & Papazoglou, M. (2019). The Place of Humor in the Classroom. 10.1007/978-3-030-15202-4_8.

Legény J, & Špaček, R. (2019) Humour as a device in architectural education. Global Journal of Engineering Education, 21(1), 6-13.

McCarron, K., & Savin‐Baden, M. (2008). Compering and comparing: Stand‐up comedy and pedagogy. Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 45(4), 355-363.