Using Humor in the College Classroom: Funny You Should Ask

By Drew C. Appleby, Ph.D. The use of humor in the college classroom has been researched extensively (see Segrist & Hupp, 2015 who summarized 41 years of literature on humor in the college classroom) and has been shown to have many benefits for students (Banas, Dunbar, Rodriguez & Liu, 2011; Garner, 2006; Huss & Estep, 2016; Pollio, 2002), some of which are: An increase in learning. An increase in self-motivation. An increase in class attendance. An increase in test performance. An increase in divergent thinking. An increase of interest in learning. A reduction of anxiety and stress in dealing with difficult […]