School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University.
We all know the reputation of science instructors as unapproachable and boring. Yet they don’t have to be. One easy way for science instructors to connect better to students is to tell a joke – or two- in the classroom!
A new study published by our research group in PLOS ONE explored student perceptions of college science instructor’s use of humor by surveying over 1600 students from 25 different college science classes. Overwhelmingly, students appreciated when instructors tried to be funny; in fact, 99% of students appreciated instructor use of humor! However, the type of humor seemed to matter for students. If the instructor told a joke that was perceived as offensive, then students related less to the instructor and felt as though they did not belong as much in class. However, when an instructor tells jokes that students think are funny, they become more relatable to students, students feel like they belong more in the class, and they even pay more attention to course content!
You might be thinking: What if I tell a joke to my students that’s supposed to be funny but falls flat? Well, it seemed as though inoffensive jokes that did not come across as funny did not bother students; unfunny humor didn’t affect how much students felt they belonged or how much they related to the instructor. So,science instructors, keep telling your jokes, even if they get a groan as long as they aren’t offensive!
What types of jokes should instructors tell to maximize being funny and minimize being offensive? Well, the study found that the most funny and least offensive topics that instructors can joke about are science, tv, and college. So these are likely safe topics to joke about in the classroom. However, the study highlighted gender differences in other topics that students perceived as offensive. Women were more likely than men to perceive that jokes on certain topics – politics, sex, and jokes about underrepresented groups such as LGBTQ individuals – were offensive. This could mean that instructors may inadvertently be making women in the class less comfortable if instructors choose to joke about topics such as these.
So, should science instructors try to be funny? Yes, as long as they are not offensive!
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| ASU Researchers for this article |
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