Despite efforts made over the past few years to improve upon the way introductory economics is taught, these efforts have unfortunately done very little to change student perception of economics as a dry, difficult and boring subject. Since the introductory economics course for many nonmajors may be their only economics course in college, it is…

An achievement evaluation of a non-conventional physics course for liberal arts students is presented. The theoretical ground for this course focuses on the use of humour as a teaching tool. Preliminary evidence shows that a learning process is accomplished. (Contains 1 table and 3 figures.)

This project posits that incorporating political humor into the classroom can have a positive effect on learning in higher education. Specifically, we present preliminary findings from a quasi-experiment in which a humorous, "mock" textbook titled America (The Book) (Stewart, Karlin, and Javerbaum 2004) was incorporated into Introduction to…

The effect of humor on retention of lecture material was studied with 100 undergraduate students at California State University, Dominguez Hills. Within each class, students were divided into four equal groups, and four versions of a lecture on language development were presented on videotape by a college faculty member. The lectures were…

Shared laughter is a powerful way to reinforce learning, and it helps to make tasks less laborious and threatening. Humor, retention, anxiety; engaging in spontaneous and planned humor; concerns about humor use; and personal humor growth and integration with instruction are discussed. (MLW)

A guide for college instructors and part of an in-progress book, this document illustrates the effectiveness of humor and graphic art in enhancing presentations and promoting learning. Graphic aids and the combination of verbal and visual materials provide excellent supplements to college lectures and discussions, and help communicate concepts by…