Don't Joke About Me: Student Identities and Perceptions of Instructor Humor in College Science Courses.

ABSTRACT: Humor is a popular tool used by instructors to engage students. However, some instructor jokes may be perceived as less funny and more offensive by particular groups of students. Previous studies have shown that student gender impacts student perception of instructor humor; however, to our knowledge no studies have explored whether there are differences in how other identity groups interpret instructor humor. In this study, we surveyed 1,637 students across 25 different college science courses at a research-intensive institution in the Southwest United States. Students evaluated a set of topics that science instructors might joke about in class as to whether they were funny and offensive. Using binary logistic regression, we analyzed whether students of different identities, including race

SUBMITTER: Cooper KM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7148142 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature