Thank you, Larisa and James for your very useful comments and for the links. I am familiar with "Garner's article but not with the other one on teachers' ratings.

I find the use of humor in teaching very humane and stimulating. I see how well students react to a joke or cartoon when it is subject-related. In fact, since I use these materials regularly, I sometimes receive student's "contributions" too and include them in my repertoire.

I am going to try to use humor in mock online tests. I wouldn't dare include it in real exams, but when no grades are involved, humorous insertions can be a little magnet attracting students' interest. There is an excellent article by Ronald A. Berk "Does Humor in Course Tests Reduce Anxiety and Improve Performance?" published in "College Training" , 2000, 48(4).

This is a very interesting question with many possible answers.

In addition to @Larisa Fialkova's helpful comment, there is a bit more to consider.   There are many studies of the benefits of humor in teaching.   See, for example:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/216008629_Teachers'_Use_of_Humor_in_Teaching_and_Students'_Rating_of_Their_Effectiveness

https://www.researchgate.net/project/Humor-in-mathematics-teaching-PROJ-CI-DETS-2015-0005

Basically, with the inclusion of humor in teaching, there is the possibility of laughter in connection with humorous aspects of a topic leading to an Aha! experience among students.   This possibility is the focus in

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/254338705_Humor_in_Pedagogy_How_Ha-ha_can_Lead_to_Aha

Article Teachers’ Use of Humor in Teaching and Students’ Rating of T...

Article Humor in Pedagogy: How Ha-ha can Lead to Aha!

Thank you, Larisa and James for your very useful comments and for the links. I am familiar with "Garner's article but not with the other one on teachers' ratings.

I find the use of humor in teaching very humane and stimulating. I see how well students react to a joke or cartoon when it is subject-related. In fact, since I use these materials regularly, I sometimes receive student's "contributions" too and include them in my repertoire.

I am going to try to use humor in mock online tests. I wouldn't dare include it in real exams, but when no grades are involved, humorous insertions can be a little magnet attracting students' interest. There is an excellent article by Ronald A. Berk "Does Humor in Course Tests Reduce Anxiety and Improve Performance?" published in "College Training" , 2000, 48(4).

Humor is an excellent way to reduce stress during the delivery of Lessons

Dear Dr. Yelenevskaya,

From my experience, using humor helps create relaxing atmosphere in the classroom; for example, one time, I discussed how students would be graded, and in the end I made a joke about how achieving all the goals would make them superhuman, just to let them know that I was not looking for perfection in practice. Students laughed and appeared friendly.

However, as you mentioned, it's a double-edged sword; The teacher needs to use humor at the right time. I had an unpleasant teaching experience when I was overly funny, and it turned out that students did not take me seriously when I delivered some important lessons and asked for their participation. Earning their respect was quite difficult.

And I heard some complaints about another teacher also being so funny in the classroom. It turned out that some students felt that they did not learn anything substantial from the teacher. They did not seem to enjoy his joking around. In his case, humor could distract students' attention from the lessons.

Well, hope these experiences are relevant here.

Sincerely,

Cameen 

Thanks, Cameen and Rolando!

All the research papers devoted to humor in class agree that it is relaxing, but an overdose can be harmful.

What I find intriguing is that researchers report the use of humor in math and sciences more frequently than in humanities and social sciences. does anyone have an explanation for this?

This is an interesting and seldom discussed issue. In the course of my own teaching experience I came to realize that teaching is a kind of theater. There is an audience and a performer whose objective is to convey certain information and to instigate certain approaches for dealing with it. Few things are better at directing and maintaining attention than humor. Maria's question is thought provoking.

Could it be that humor can have a certain abstract quality which is more likely to be found in math and science than in other areas?

Thanks for your response, David! I agree but I also think that a good teacher is not only an actor, but also a director, who has to engage the audience in such a way that they become part of the cast.Even lectures shouldn't be just monologues, but ideally interactive. And real interaction is never dry but it involves witticisms and even teasing.