Laughter and Learning

  The other day, I came across a title about laughter and math.   We know laughter can help a person stay healthier but can it help a person learn better?  This is one of those topics that no one ever talked about during teacher training so it sparked my curiosity.

According to the American Psychological Association, laughter can indeed help a person learn.  There is growing evidence that comedy when used appropriately, can improve student ability because it cuts down on anxiety, increases motivation and participation.

It appears that people are more likely to remember material if the professor sprinkles relevant jokes through the lecture.  In addition, well done humor inserted in recorded or digital material can motivate students into checking it regularly.

It appears that humor helps to relieve stress.  Furthermore, laughter itself can cause the body to decrease its production of specific stress hormones.  One way to help students relax during tests is to insert humorous directions or items designed to relax students so they feel less stressed. 

Another effect is that students believe they learn more from a professor who uses humor. They also feel that a professor who uses humor communicates better and are more responsive to student questions.  The things about incorporating humor into the classroom is that it has to be done so it does not distract the learning process. 

When integrating humor into the classroom, it is important to focus on learning first.  Remember, the humor is must be created with the student in mind.  It should not be overdone otherwise students look forward to the next gag, rather than focusing on the material being presented.

Furthermore, students who laugh in the classroom tend to develop good communication skills and improved critical thinking skills and creativity while deceasing the amount of stress they feel.  If they laugh in groups, their ability to work in groups improves their comradery, and helps develop a strong bond with others.

Research has shown that humor activates the brains dopamine system. The dopamine is important for the brains long term memory.  In addition, humor as stated earlier, does improve retention for students of all ages as long as it directly applies to the topic, otherwise it is not effective.

I admit, its hard for me to come up with humor for my math classes because most of us do not go around telling mathematical jokes to each other.  Never fear, a short look at the internet indicates there are quite a few sites with mathematical jokes starting with Readers Digest.  The very first joke I read there dealt with the ratio of pi and a pumpkin.  It made me grin.

You can put in simple searches such as jokes about algebra or jokes about trig so you can find some topic specific jokes.  Have fun with it and enjoy entertaining your students. Let them know you have a sense of humor.

Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.