This article will review the issues surrounding the use of humor as an informal teaching method in higher education lecturing. The impact and usefulness of humor, from both a teacher's and a student's perspective, will be investigated. The aim is to classify the challenges and limitations of using humor in classrooms and to investigate and…

College students ("n" = 846) enrolled in a general education course were randomly assigned to either an arousal (experimental) or no-arousal (control) group. The experimental group was exposed to a topic-relevant, 90-second external stimulus (a technique used to elevate arousal and focus attention). The control group listened to the…

Humor has not always been looked on with favor in academia. For centuries, the "ideal" professor was a paragon of serious academic pursuit with no time for frivolous commentary. There was nothing funny about the rigors of learning. However, a growing body of literature is emerging that documents the potential positive effects of the systematic and…

Audio-taped lectures by male or female professors were produced in four versions: no humor; sexual humor; other-disparaging humor; and self-disparaging humor. Male and female students rated lecturers' intelligence and appeal. Intelligence ratings were unaffected by humor variations, but significant lecturer-student sex interactions were found on…