What makes a good teacher? Ideally a teacher is able to engage their students and present them information in a memorable or easy to understand way. Is it necessary for students to like their teachers? Not necessarily but it certainly helps with the engagement aspect.

 

Studies have shown that using humorous material in class rather than the more traditional and mundane lectures can actually increase the recall and retention of the content presented. The more students are able to retain the more tools they well have at their disposal come exam time or when they have to apply those concepts in real life. By improving the memorability of a lesson a teacher is upgrading the quality of the lecture for the student and improving their chances of success.

 

Including humor in the classroom not only improves how the content is received but also creates an environment that is more conducive to learning. In her article on Faculty Focus which examined a review of 40 years of research on humor in education, Dr. Maryellen Weimer writes how “Humor builds group cohesion” and “that humor helps individuals cope with stress.” By creating a more harmonious and unified classroom setting humor creates a culture which facilitates the discourse and sharing of ideas that is so critical to student development. Furthermore she notes how humor has the potential to lessen the anxiety that is often a byproduct of difficult coursework. This capability makes humor extremely useful in the classroom as decreasing the mental strife students experience in school will make it more enjoyable thus increasing their desire to learn and take on new challenges. Moreover high levels of stress lead to trouble concentrating which is definitely an issue one should aim to prevent in their students.

 

Finally it has been shown in multiple cases that instructors who employ the use of humor as a part of their teaching style are actually considered by their students as being more effective educators. There have been countless reports which show that teachers who are able to appropriately introduce humor into their lectures are rated more highly when evaluated by students. In his dissertation for his doctorate of philosophy, Stephen Halula interviewed students at a University in the Midwest and found that a majority of them linked the use of humor with the efficacy of their professors. A student who enjoys their professor is more likely to pay attention to what that professor says than those who do not. By creating this bond using humor teachers reduce the amount of time their students spend resenting them which frees up time for learning. 

 

So as you can clearly see humor is a multi-beneficial component that adds a great amount of value to the classroom setting.