To be funny or not to be funny: Gender differences in student perceptions of instructor humor in college science courses.

ABSTRACT: For over 50 years instructor humor has been recognized as a way to positively impact student cognitive and affective learning. However, no study has explored humor exclusively in the context of college science courses, which have the reputation of being difficult and boring. The majority of studies that explore humor have assumed that students perceive instructor humor to be funny, yet students likely perceive some instructor humor as unfunny or offensive. Further, evidence suggests that women perceive certain subjects to be more offensive than men, yet we do not know what impact this may have on the experience of women in the classroom. To address these gaps in the literature, we surveyed students across 25 different college science courses about their perceptions of instructor humor in c

SUBMITTER: Cooper KM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6093647 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature