A speech communication professor informs his students of implicit classroom rules by using a humorous handout. Now and then, the professor elaborates on items in class using stories of classroom encounters that led to the handout's creation. Some of these "tongue-in-cheek" rules (there are 22 in all) are: (1) try to arrive at class a few…

Several points need to be addressed when selecting humorous books for children. First, people of all ages react to humor in different ways; therefore, what one child finds funny another may not. Care must therefore be taken in sharing books with and recommending books for children. Second, humor itself is difficult to define, but humor should…

A study investigated the hypotheses that: (1) people from different language backgrounds would differ in the jokes they found funny; and (2) the differences would be related to culture rather than lack of vocabulary. A questionnaire with 30 jokes was presented to 51 English teachers from a wide variety of countries and 11 native English-speakers.…

Because of the historical influence of religion in the national life and personal lives of many American citizens and the interplay between religious and national affairs in public discourse, it is useful to study the secular media for its portrayal of religion as news or as value system. A study describes the nature of commentary on religion by…

Highlighting pertinent research in the area of young children's development of humor, this paper reviews four areas from a cognitive-developmental perspective: (1) humor as a cognitive process, (2) humor and the developmental process, (3) research on young children's humor, and (4) humor and early childhood education. First, the structural…

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…

A seventh grade class prepared an illustrated book of "corny's" (catch phrases on various occupations) which they wrote, designed, illustrated, edited, advertised, printed, colated. From the sale of the book a small profit was made and donated to a charitable organization. (BP)

This study focuses on the motivational aspects of children's humor and describes the naturally occurring verbal humor of children without stimulus from adults. Kindergarten and elementary school children were observed during their lunch period at school while engaged in social interaction over 16 weeks. The study was designed to (1) record the…

This booklet is one of a series developed by the Northern Colorado Educational Board of Cooperative Services to make available to teachers ideas designed and tested by other teachers. Many of the ideas are from educational journals as well as from the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC). The booklet contains sixteen activities…

In this review of the current state of humor research, the author traces the basic problems to two major deficiencies: (1) a lack of adequate theorizing concerning the effects of humor in communication, and (2) problems in experimental designs, particularly the study of humor in a laboratory setting. Too little research and insufficient attention…

Discusses the use of puns, riddles and jokes in building vocabulary, beginning reading, and fostering discussion. Examples are presented and further source materials are suggested. (EJS)

This article describes two methods for breaking out of therapeutic impasses. One way is to be absurd, to push the situation to its ridiculous limit. The second is acting-in. Acting-in is the effort of the psychotherapist to intensify the anxiety to bring about an experiential breakthrough. (Author/JEL)

Provides comparative data on the use of humor, self-disclosure, and narrative by award-winning college and secondary teachers. Indicates that these teachers used these dramatic behaviors to clarify course content, and that they used them significantly more than the nonaward winning teachers from the same educational levels. (MS)

Points out that a key to discipline is the developing of a fun-filled friendship between adults and children in the child care environment. Suggests that "me vs. you" situations can be avoided by distracting the child with something interesting and fun, such as directions given in the form of a jingle or song. (RWB)