University Times

Andrew Lotz, lecturer and academic adviser in the Department of Political Science, learned comedy during a five-year stint with an improv troupe in Michigan.

In the same way that improvisational comedy is practiced beforehand yet appears spontaneous, for humor in the classroom to be an effective instructional tool it should be planned, calculated and tailored to the course material.

That was the main theme of an instructional development workshop led by Andrew Lotz, lecturer and academic adviser in the Department of Political Science — himself a five-year veteran of improvisational performance with an improv troupe in Michigan.

Offered for the first time March 13, “Laughter as Learning: The Why, How and Who of Appropriate Humor in the Classroom” was sponsored by the Center for Instructional Development and Distance Education.

“I’ve done a fair amount of improvisational comedy,” Lotz said. “Being funny is all about timing and timing is all about strategy and planning. This is the lesson from improv: To appear spontaneous is actually to be highly practiced. You practice over and over again and that’s what makes spontaneity look spontaneous. The more spontaneous it appears, the more natural it seems, which increases the comfort in the classroom.”

He cautioned that the workshop was not a joke tutorial. “We have to remember it’s the course material that’s important, not the person when it comes to humor. The goal is not to be Professor Joker. That is a problematic way to approach teaching. If that’s your goal, stand-up comedy is out there. In the classroom, we have to tell the difference between what is entertainment and what is strategic enhancement of learning objectives. So humor first of all comes from a mastery of the material. We need to know what we want to accomplish in the classroom. Humor is one method among many to distribute that information,” he explained.

There are, however, useful considerations about why humor can be effective, how it can promote student inclusivity and which moments are appropriate and which are not for using humor, he said.

“If you ask yourself, ‘Would using humor in the classroom be useful to me?’ self-analysis is the key to answering that,” Lotz said. “I can’t give you any overarching guidelines: Here’s how to put humor in your classroom, here are the jokes to use, here are the moments to use them, here’s the logic and the rubric and the outline of humor. This is something you have to answer for yourself. For use of humor in the classroom, we have to hold up the mirror to ourselves.”

In preparation for the workshop, Lotz asked some colleagues: Why does humor enrich the classroom?

“The responses I got were varied, but the primary one was: ‘If my students are laughing, they’ve got to be listening, paying attention.’ If I tell a joke and I hear laughter throughout the room, then I know they’ve heard the joke and hopefully they’ve heard what I said before the joke and will hear what I say afterward,” he said.

Other colleagues said that humor prevents a boring classroom; humor makes the instructor feel more comfortable; humor eases the students’ experience, especially in a course that by reputation or content is intimidating, and that humor leads to better teaching evaluations, “something that’s on our mind as instructors — albeit in the back of our minds, we hope,” Lotz said.

But, he acknowledged, those are mere assumptions that require scholarly scrutiny. “A lot of confirming evidence exists on the link of laughter to learning, but the pathways are under debate, at the very least,” Lotz said.

What research reveals is that an effective impact on learning occurs when humor is deployed in a strategic and intentional fashion, while simultaneously achieving cognitive learning goals.

“When we tie these together, planning and goals, and it’s strategically and purposefully deployed, then we start to see signs that humor is effective,” he said.

Humor also has been shown to have a number of positive side effects, including preventing or lessening classroom management problems, countermanding the “era of the distracting portable device,” building instructor-student rapport and clarifying course content. “For example, to tell a humorous anecdote can give a second layer of insight into the concept we’re discussing,” he noted.

“Humor builds familiarity, this confidence between ourselves and our students. They’re more likely to ask questions in class, particularly clarifying questions, which students are often reticent to ask. This works particularly well if instructors laugh at their own foibles,” Lotz said.

But there are concerns with the effectiveness of humor in the classroom, too, he noted. “We have these pre-set assumptions that humor is always beneficial, that it’s always going to bring us good results and that there’s no moment where being funny is a detriment,” he said. “Unfocused use of humor leads to very marginal gains. If we come into class just to be humorous, we won’t get those kinds of gains we get when humor is targeted and strategic.”

Two interlocked areas where humor is effective are in addressing “dread” courses and building a positive classroom climate, Lotz maintained.

Dread courses are those where anticipation of difficulty causes negative effects upon learning, he explained. “An example of a dread course in my discipline is Research Methods in Political Science. I often hear from students that this is a course they dread, they’re afraid of it, they put it off as long as possible,” Lotz said. Other examples of courses include many writing courses, required theory courses and so-called ‘weed-out’ courses, such as organic chemistry, where a student cannot move forward in a discipline without getting past the course.

“Humor can help us navigate and ease through the dread course. A large component of that is the power of the classroom climate,” Lotz said.

“Learning happens at the nexus of the student development as a thinker, as a writer, as a reader, as a researcher and the climate of the classroom, that is, the tone we’re setting, the examples we’re using, the level of inclusiveness we build in the classroom — all these things get intertwined into the learning experience. That’s why the climate is something to consider when it comes to humor, because humor is a definite component of that climate.”

Instructors, however, should be aware of marginalizing students. “Either the class makes students feel out of place and marginalized or makes them feel centralized and included. The way that this can happen can be explicit or implicit,” Lotz said.

“In political science, for example, we have to be careful about wearing our personal political colors on our sleeve, because they could explicitly marginalize students with different political views. Whereas when we explicitly are open to alternative views — in our discussion, in our verbal and non-verbal cues, in our syllabus — it has a centralizing effect on the classroom. We make the classroom a welcoming place,” something humor can contribute to, he said.

“But we also have to remember, though, that classroom climate is experienced differently by different students. Humor is no exception, which is why in the classroom humor must be appropriate. Humor that’s appropriate can be centralizing; humor that is inappropriate can be marginalizing,” Lotz said.

Appropriate moments for humor come at a variety of times, he said. “One is during the actual conceptual engagement. We understand that certain topics lend themselves to a humorous approach. When I teach about Andrew Jackson, I have to be careful. We know that Jackson promoted some horrific policies that our country embarked upon. But also Jackson had loads of amusing anecdotes about himself as a person. So, the material might tell us that this is a useful time to use humor,” Lotz said.

“I also teach ‘lifeboat’ cases, when we’re talking about ethics and what decision rules we use. What would you do if you’re stranded in a lifeboat and how do you determine who to eat first? This is something that lends itself to a humorous approach, because I’m already dealing in that conceptual sphere. I can use the jokes, it keeps it light, it’s not harmful, not hurtful. That link to learning through laughter can make discussions memorable.”

Other appropriate times include during the mundane “business matters” of a course. “Here we build rapport with our students. We’re showing them we’re an ordinary person, too. We have the same concerns that they have when we’re giving out assignments, when we’re deciding who’s going to present when,” Lotz said.

There also are many inappropriate times for introducing humor, he noted.

“Discriminatory statements are a staple of some forms of humor but they’re explicitly against University policy. So familiarize yourself with the myriad forms of discrimination that exist, and endeavor to keep that out of your classroom, including the humor portions,” Lotz advised.

Likewise, sexual innuendo is not a useful tool. “It might be memorable, but students will remember most the inappropriateness of it. Any humor that singles out a specific student is especially problematic. Not only the student, but others recognize the discomfort. Everyone in the room feels that this person is being picked on, even if it’s well-meaning. Therefore, being self-referential is best. If you’re going to make light of someone, make light of yourself. If you’re going to make fun of a style of dress or a mode of behavior, make certain that you are pointing toward yourself,” he said.

There also are certain concepts or topics that are serious matters or sensitive matters, Lotz said.

“Those two are distinct. Serious matters are topics of human safety and security, topics in which someone’s bodily integrity is in jeopardy, or their rights are in jeopardy. Humor is not the best response. We can joke about privacy concerns, but when it comes to human trafficking, that’s something that’s a serious matter not to be made light of,” he said.

Sensitive matters are topics where certain students have vested interests or differing views. “I teach a book in an intro course and one chapter is about the difficulty of international adoption. I understand implicitly that some of my students might be adopted, or even a product of a foreign adoption. I have to understand this is a moment that is sensitive, where vested interests are involved. There humor might not be the ideal tool,” Lotz said.

Certain kinds of humor also should be avoided as a general rule, such as dark humor or “gallows” humor, he noted.

“Again, the classroom climate and the nature of the material are the primary decision factors. Is your climate inclusive or exclusive and does the humor relate to what material I’m covering today?” Lotz explained.

“That’s the first step: By being purposeful about the use of humor in the classroom, we identify the pathway to realize a particular outcome, we link the tool of using humor with the goal of students paying attention, or students feeling more comfortable — whatever our goal is. With every course, I suggest you identify an objective that’s not being met and ask, ‘Why would humor help?’ If we know our pathway, then we can prepare strategically. We can move toward how humor is effective.”

—Peter Hart