Using Humor In The College Classroom To Enhance Teaching Effectiveness In "Dread Courses"

Humor is a valuable teaching tool for establishing a classroom climate conducive to learning. This article identifies opportunities for incorporating humor in the college classroom, reviews the impact of humor on learning outcomes, and suggests guidelines for the appropriate use of humor. Of particular interest is humor in "dread courses" which students may avoid due to a lack of self-confidence, perceived difficulty of the material or a previous negative experience in a content area. Appropriate and timely humor in the college classroom can foster mutual openness and respect and contribute to overall teaching effectiveness.

The Laughter Remedy

Created by Paul E. McGhee, Ph.D., The Laughter Remedy was created to provide1) information (based on the latest research) about how humor contributes to health, stress reduction, and effective job performance, and2) the tools needed by individuals, corporations, health care organizations, and support groups to obtain these benefits. This is achieved in three ways:
1. See our articles designed to keep you up to date on recent research relating to humor and health and issues concerning humor in the work place. (See Humor Your Tumor, Humor in the Workplace, etc.)
2. Keynotes and seminars on humor for your company, health care organization, or conference. (See Speaker Brochure.)
3. Books on humor and health/stress, and how to develop your own humor coping skills. (See Laughter Remedy Products.) McGhee wrote Health, Healing, and the Amuse System: Humor as Survival Training and Small Medium at Large: How to Develop a Powerful Verbal Sense of Humor (adult edition) as well as several childhood editions geared to developing and understanding children's sense of humor.

After-school comedy training at middle school

Larry Mintz, the director of the Art Gliner Center for Humor Studies at the university thinks the concept of an after-school comedy club is a great way for kids to dig deep into themselves. "Its unique ability to let young teens express themselves about issues important to them-bullying, dating, teachers, parents-is what makes this special," he says.

Humor Reference Guide (full text book) by Warren Shibles

This comprehensive classsification and analysis of humor was written by Warren Shibles, a philosophy professor at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.

Courses taught in humor

• Humor and laughter by Dr. Michael K. Cundall Jr., The Honors College, Arkansas State
• The Rhetoric of American Political Humor by Michael Phillips, Communication, U. of Maryland
• Humor at the workplace (MSD187) by Clyde Fahlmann, Portland Community College.
  Communication and Humor (SCTA 380) by Todd T. Holm, Ph.D, at Concordia College in Moorhead, MN
• Rabbis, rogues and schlemiels: Jewish humor and its roots by Lewis Glinert, Dartmouth College COMP LIT 70
• They Psychology of Humour and Laughter (PSY356: Spring 2002) by Willibald Ruch, Queens U. of Belfast
• The arts and science of humor by Janet Davis, Ph.D, Truman St. U.
• LIN 591: Seminar in Linguistic Humor (Spring 2001) by Don L.F. Nilsen
• Psychology of Humor (Spring 2001) by Jon Mueller
• Ethnic Humor by Ruth Schwartz (Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute)
• Comedy & Laughter by G. Neil Martin
• Enhance Your Teaching With Laughter (University of California Extension, Santa Cruz by Doni Tamblyn)
• Educa desde el humor (Educate through humor) at the Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca, Spain, (July 26th to 30th) by German Payo
• Satire, Irony, and Gallows Humor (Spring 1999) by Don L.F. Nilsen
• Psychology of Humour by Rod A. Martin
• Linguistics of Humor by Jocelyn Cohan
• Writing for Electronic Media Genres: Situation Comedies by Arthur Asa Berger
• Humor: An Interdisciplinary Approach by Martin Lampert (for nurses and students at Holy Names College).
• Literature of Laughter by John A. Dowell
• Linguistic Approaches to Humor by Neal Norrick
• Developing a psychology of humor by Mark Mitchell
• Television Situation Comedy by Angela M. S. Nelson
• The comic theater Comparative Literature, Cornell
• Humor in the Workplace by Clyde Fahlman

Journals and Conferences

• Humor: International Journal of Humor Research (quarterly journal)
• Studies in American Humor (journal)
  
  Conferences
• International Summer School and Symposium on Humour and Laughter: Theory, Research and Applications
• The Positive Power of Humor, Hope and Healing

Associations

• American Humor Studies Association (AHSA) fosters and promotes study, criticism, andresearch in American humor in all its varied aspects.
• Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor (AATH) committed to advancing knowledge and understanding of humor and laughter as they relate to healing and well-being
• International Society for Humor Studies (ISHS) is a scholarly and professional organization dedicated to the advancement of humor research. Many of the society’s members are university and college professors, representing disciplines such as Psychology, Linguistics, Literature, Biology, Education, Anthropology, Philosophy, Religion, Fine Arts, and Sociology. The society also includes professionals in areas such as counseling, nursing, management, journalism, and theater. All of the society’s members are interested in the many facets of humor, including its role in entertainment, business, and health care as well as how humor varies according to culture, age, gender, purpose, and historical context.
• The Humor Project is the first organization in the world to focus full-time on the positive power of humor. Its mission is to make a difference by being a unique, pioneering, and cutting-edge organization that touches the lives of individuals, organizations, and nations. They seek to help people get more smileage out of their lives and jobs by applying the practical, positive power of humor and creativity.
• American Humor Institute -- "At the American Comedy Institute, we offer people training to persue comedy professionally or simply as something they love and want to learn how to do well."

"Laughingly Referred To: An Interdisciplinary Bibliography

Jason Rutter's "Laughingly Referred To: An Interdisciplinary Bibliography of Published Work in the Field of Humour Studies and Research" is a unique resource for the humour researcher. Originally developed for distribution on the HUMOUR-RESEARCH mailing list this bibliography now contains over 4000 individual references.

Jim Lyttle's Humor Page

Jim Lyttle wrote his dissertation on the effectiveness of a business ethics training program that used Dilbert cartoons. His thesis also explored uses of humor. His site has a number of links to a more theoretical side of humor, focusing on the nature of humor, theories of humor, and the essence of humor. Lyttle recommends two introductory books on the humor: Humor: Its Origin and Development and The Philosophy of Laughter and Humor.