Motivating students: Stimulating and sustaining student interest with the incorporation of humor within the classroom

Research Applications: AEE 5104

Problem..• Schools have narrow focus on discipline• Heavy emphasis solely on standardized

testing, objectives, and competencies in today’s classroom

• Teachers have lost sight of making the learning environment fun for students

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Problem..• Reviewing the literature the following voids

were found:• Lack of research pertaining to humor within

education • Lack of research with definitive results• Challenging to measure the true affect of

humor on students within the classroom

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• Humor has shown to facilitate attention and motivation, improve teacher-student rapport, and make curriculum more enjoyable

• Humor allows students to feel more at ease, and decreases stress, and increases students retention of material

• Humor increases retention, creativity, and critical thinking

Literature Literature FindingsFindings

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Facilitating Planned Humor• Teachers can develop their skills to incorporate

humor within their instructional strategy

• Use cartoons, ask questions with humorous answers, rewrite bits of text humorously, incorporate humor within direct lecture

• All subjects have the potential for humor

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• Humor should be based in a positive light

• Steer clear of sarcasm

• Humor is a skill that can be practiced and perfected

• Teachers don’t need to be a comedian to effectively incorporate

Incorporating Incorporating HumorHumor

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• Loudoun County Public Schools• Dominion High School• Stone Bridge High School

• Marketing Education Courses

• Purpose was to determine the impact of humor on students

The Context

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Data CollectionData Collection

Method One• Incorporate humor into

direct lecture• Use jokes, stories, and

quips throughout lesson• Measure affect humor on

retention through short assessments

Method Two• Incorporate humor

directly into assessments• Place humor into

directions to facilitate motivation

• Measure effectiveness of humor by students reading directions in entirety

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Findings Using Exam Scores

• Exam scores used to gauge student retention • Using t-test and p-score was proven to be

statistically insignificant

• A lower p-score was needed to determine if humor within the classroom is effective

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Findings Using Informal Assessments

• Informal assessment scores determine amount of knowledge that was retained after a lecture

• Assessment consisted of questions pertaining to direct lecture

• Based on t-test and p-score was not statistically significant enough to draw a definitive conclusion

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Exam Scores vs. HandoutsExam Scores vs. Handouts

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Findings Based on Humor Incorporated in Directions• Humor placed within directions

• One class received humor-filled directions and the control group did not receive any humor

• Based on a one-tailed individual t-test and p-score the data was not statistically significant

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Results: Humor Incorporated in DirectionsResults: Humor Incorporated in Directions

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Conclusions• Research evidence was not statistically significant

enough to draw definite conclusions

• Researchers observed positive change when humor was incorporated in the curriculum

• Humor directly affects students attention, retention, and excitement for curriculum

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Conclusions• Team believes there is value in incorporating

humor into the curriculum

• The team will continue research into next academic year

• Students showed less fatigue, anxiety, and tension during the humorous lessons

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Recommendations• Research team will add more assessments to gauge impact of

humor on other factors• Educational approach rather than assessment based• Further investigation in order to draw more conclusive evidence• Refine humor and implementation• Team will be more experienced and more capable of

implementing humor within their own classrooms• Increased collaboration • Obtain more data to draw conclusions

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