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Exploring Positives and Negatives of Humor in the Collegiate Classroom

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Conference

2021 Illinois-Indiana Regional Conference

Location

Virtual

Publication Date

April 16, 2021

Start Date

April 16, 2021

End Date

April 17, 2021

Conference Session

Posters and Workshops

Tagged Topic

Workshops and Posters

Page Count

1

DOI

10.18260/1-2--38265

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/38265

Download Count

352

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Paper Authors

author page

Lucas Buccafusca University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign

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Abstract

The most effective instructors are those who can engage their students in creative and interesting ways. One such way to interact with students is to incorporate humor into the college classroom. Humor can have psychological, social, and cognitive benefits. Furthermore, humor has the power to make instructors amiable, welcoming, facilitate stronger learning, increased concentration during lectures, and promote social relationships. While humor is not an end-all tool in teaching, it can be a valuable inclusion to promote a healthy learning environment. However when used improperly humor can be detrimental, both to retention of material and mental health.

This poster explores both the positive and negative effects of humor in the collegiate classroom. This work investigates these concepts by first exploring prior studies in which undergraduate students shared their preferences of humor. To increase the scope of this work, the results of a questionnaire directed at graduate students and professors (primarily in Engineering departments) are presented.

Buccafusca, L. (2021, April), Exploring Positives and Negatives of Humor in the Collegiate Classroom Paper presented at 2021 Illinois-Indiana Regional Conference, Virtual. 10.18260/1-2--38265

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