Humor as an Instructional Defibrillator

Grab those paddles. Charge 300. Clear! “Ouch!” Now how do you feel? “Great!” Humor used as a systematic teaching tool in your classroom can bring students and deadly, boring course content to life. Since some students in every course have short attention spans, we need to find creative techniques to hook them, engage their emotions, and focus their minds and eyeballs on learning. This Net Generation of students eschew traditional lectures and textbook-based teaching methods. New and innovative strategies for connecting with these students are needed. Humor can provide that connection. The strategies presented draw on the theory of multiple intelligences and the research from neuropsychology, education, commercial advertising, humor, music, and communications.

The results of 70+ studies from over 45 years of research on humor and laughter are reviewed. Ten evidence-based humor methods, divided into low-, moderate-, and high-risk categories, are described through verbal examples, music, video clips, and audience participation. Participants will be able to easily integrate print humor into syllabi, handouts, examples, problems, case studies, discussion questions, project outlines, tests, course websites, wedding invitations, and parking tickets. Examples of live delivery humor include twisted proverbs, cartoons, multiple-choice items, top ten lists, anecdotes, skits/dramatizations with music (TV, movie, and Broadway parodies), and Jeopardy! type reviews. Whether you’re a newbie or veteran of humor in the classroom, you will find new ideas to apply to your course. This presentation “boldly goes where no academician has gone before, maybe.” It will change your teaching life as you now know it.

This topic is available as a 1–1.5 hour keynote or 3-hour workshop.

To find out more, email Ed Leach or call (480) 705-8200, x233.