There are two major global educational trends that have changed the form and execution of humor in the classroom and in professional conferences: (1) the burgeoning instructional technology, especially PowerPoint, which can provide a vehicle for several forms of low risk humor anyone can present; and (2) the diversity of classroom demographics,…

An interaction is the heart of language teaching and learning. Classroom interaction initially refers to conversational exchanges between teacher, as an initiator, and students, as responders. However, the dimension of interaction in the classroom is not solely on conversational adjustment among interactants. The aim of the study was to report the…

The purpose in this study is to examine the effect of "Online Learning Environment based of Caricature Animation" which is prepared for "Human and Environment" and "Sun and Space" units in the secondary school 7th Grade Science and Technology course, on the success and attitude of the students for humor. The…

A corpus of 313 freshman college essays was analyzed in order to better understand the forms and functions of humor in academic writing. Human ratings of humor and wordplay were statistically aggregated using Factor Analysis to provide an overall "Humor" component score for each essay in the corpus. In addition, the essays were also…

Instructors' use of humor is generally a positive influence on student outcomes. However, examinations of humor have found that specific types of messages may not impact, or may even reverse, its positive effect. Instructional humor processing theory (IHPT) has been used to explain how humor impacts student learning. The current study sought to…

Successful language acquisition requires extensive word knowledge. However, learners are reportedly unable to increase their word knowledge due to insufficient meaningful input in the language classrooms. This paper intended to present another tool to encourage learners' vocabulary development. It examined the effect(s) of using short narrative…

This Teaching Tips describes a yearlong process of facilitating meaningful discussion groups about literature with first-grade students in an urban Title I school. At the beginning of the year, the teacher provided explicit instruction in speaking and listening skills to support students with the social skills needed for thoughtful discussion. She…

By examining the ways in which high school students in two different English classes take up virtual self-representation tactics in school-based social networking sites, this article explores how young people carefully juggle the digital identities they adopt for the eyes of both peers and teachers. The data reveals that the students'…

According to John Banas and colleagues, the research on laughter in the classroom indicates that a classroom full of laughter increases learning. In contrast, Plato argued that laughter is a vice and chastised those who would give in to it. Nonetheless, between the ancient concept of laughter as vice and the modern concept of laughter as learning…

The author explores humor during a time of increasingly hostile accountability measures directed toward educators. Drawing on incongruity and other theories of humor, he explores both "light" and "dark" humor and some aspects of the educational potential and power of humor. Noting how humor is related to creativity and problem management, the…

This paper presents findings from a comparative study of peer- and teacher-led Sex and Relationship Education (SRE). One lesson delivered by a peer educator, and one lesson delivered by a teacher was observed with the aim of exploring the communicative process between educators and students within SRE. It is claimed that open communication between…

Employing drama activities in foreign language classes has proved to help language learners improve their skills. Within the context of drama course offered in an English Language Teacher Education program in Turkey, the present study suggests some drama activities based on well-known Nasreddin Hodja jokes. The study aims to find answers to…

In this article I explore the pedagogical value of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari's philosophical concepts for helping make an "event" of thought, with a view towards fostering deep learning in Chinese students' learning theory and criticism in a second language. Paying attention to the qualitative role of bodies, humour and…

This article analyses how education is positioned in the current concerns about security and extremism. This means firstly examining the different meanings of security (national, human and societal) and who provides security for whom. Initially, a central dilemma is acknowledged: that schooling appears to be simultaneously irrelevant to the huge…

Metacognitive reading strategies and reading motivation play a significant role in enhancing reading comprehension. In an attempt to prove the foregoing claim in a context where there is no strong culture for reading, this study tries to find out if there is indeed a relationship between and among metacognitive reading strategies, reading…