What is Educational Humor?

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If your first thoughts when thinking about using humor in an educational setting is, "but I'm not that funny," relax. You don't have to be funny to utilize this strategy.  You don't have to tell jokes (although you could) or act like a stand-up comedian.  Humor can be subtle. It's having a sense of fun and adventure when teaching adult learners.  You just have to be yourself and use humor in a way that feels authentic to you. 

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Why Use Humor? Why Is It Relevant?

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Humor can help build group cohesion, reduce stress in the body and make learners more relaxed (Zillmann, 1983).  It can help establish feelings of inclusion through immediacy behaviors.  Immediacy behaviors are actions that simultaneously communicate closeness, warmth, and availability for communication and approach rather than avoidance (Wlodkowski, 2008).  According to Wlodkowski, examples of immediacy behaviors are making eye contact, smiling, moving closer to another person, and using vocal animation.   Humor is one type of immediacy behavior that adult learning facilitators can include in their toolkit of training resources. Humor, when used effectively,  can make learning more engaging and can be a way to help students remember key points.  It increases the learner's level of attention and interest.  Humor can help build a positive attitude toward a subject and the instructor, thus enhancing adult motivation to learn.  It can reduce fear and anxiety that an adult learner might have towards a subject matter or asking questions or making comments in a class.

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