Story
time: During my last semester at a Dallas Community College, I was taking an
Economics course to fulfill my last requirement that was needed for my
Associates Degree. The economics instructor was an older man, who I personally
thought was trying to keep up with the younger generation. He tried to make his
class, including the subject of economics enjoyable. However, each class
session was utterly painful. The instructor would try to make a joke out of
everything. AND I MEAN EVERYTHING! I didn’t want to hear jokes about surpluses or
a demand for a certain good; Demands for a certain good is not very funny.
Also, I knew the class felt the same way I did about his humorless voice.
Sometimes I couldn’t tell whether I was in the Amazon or in my Economics
classroom because of the crickets and the cicadas we heard after a “joke” was told. However one class period took a turn
for the worse when our instructor asked why the class was always so quiet and so
disengaged. A female student responded, “This subject is just dry.”
The
instructor’s responded, “Well then… how can I make it moist?” Then he smirked.
He smirked!
Talk
about awkward and inappropriate, right?
The
take-aways from the Booth-Butterfield and Wanzer (2010) article state that if
humor is involved in the classroom 1) the humor must be appropriate, 2) must be
connected to the content, and 3) must NOT
be forced.
And
why is this important?
Because
humor can be distracting! Especially if the humor is plain, dull, and
inappropriate.
Maybe
I should check up to see if my former Economics instructor is still at my old
stomping grounds and slip him a copy of Humor
and Communication in Instructional Contexts. Then maybe he’ll realize the voice or persona he was trying to perform was not so
effective and maybe try a different approach to engaging his current or future
students.
#letsgetloud
#letsputasmileonthatface
#thethingsilearnincommstudies <3
D.
L. Fassett & J. T. Warren (Eds.) (2010). The Sage Handbook of Communication and Instruction (Chapter 10) Los
Angeles: Sage.
I agree that this kind of humor from a professor is the worst! Very distracting indeed. As you mentioned, my best luck with humor in the classroom is when I am able to tie it to class material. Interestingly, it is when my humor arises from the course content that it is the least forced.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the great post!
I really liked this post. I totally agree. I am also now combing through my mind for to make sure all of my classroom jokes were appropriate and tied to the course material. I hope I wasn't as bad as your former professor.
ReplyDelete