Describes how magic tricks can be used as a counseling technique in elementary schools. Describes two magic tricks and suggests ways they can be used to facilitate guidance lessons on the counselor's role and self-change. (ABB)

Measures humor appreciation (including mirth, subjective ratings, and response sets), comprehension, and production in children between the ages of 10 and 14. Relates humor to several areas of competence manifested at school. (HOD)

Presents strategies helpful in maintaining learner attention (providing response opportunities, providing variety in presentation style, connecting activities clearly); building learner interest (demonstrating results, using humor, using creative examples, using questions, using unpredictability); and developing learner involvement (using…

Reviews the content of parents' notes to teachers covering a variety of subjects. (FL)

Recounts observations of a bartender working in a lounge patronized during a rhetoric conference and notes that the composing processes the bartender exhibited are similar to those needed by writing students. (DF)

Humorously discusses the problem of discerning when students are being honest in their writing and how to deal with the problems their honesty sometimes presents. (DF)

Examines several approaches to vocabulary development that are alternatives to direct vocabulary instruction. (AEA)

Describes a demonstration in which the pattern on a rotating turntable can be affected by humming and adjusting the pitch of the hum. At some frequency, if conditions are right, the pattern can be stopped, or "strobed." Also describes a way to introduce humor into physics instruction. (JN)

Discusses how laughter and joke-telling can be channeled in such a way as to enhance second language teaching. In addition, it is suggested that jokes can act as a dynamic in overcoming problems (such as lassitude) that arise in situations involving group work. (SL)

This study did not support the following hypothesis: more sexually-oriented jokes will reflect a sexist bias against women than against men. Instead, the findings indicate that joke-tellers of both sexes were more likely to select sexual jokes that discriminated against males. (PD)

High- and low-creative male and female college students were asked to devise humorous captions to cartoons containing sexual, aggressive, or neutral themes. Results indicate that males generated funnier captions than females to sexual and aggressive stimuli but not to neutral stimuli. Moreover, creativity was positively related to humor…

Explores the specific humorous content of various "All In The Family" television shows and suggests that cultural differences affect the appreciation of humor. (MH)

Discusses a study designed to determine the effects of viewed bigotry on black and white audiences. Concludes that neither the extent nor frequency of watching "All In The Family" is strongly related to racial attitudes of either blacks or whites. (MH)

A review of the educational research on humor use will answer many questions about how it works in the classroom. Humor can be classified in three ways, each with its own primary function: superiority theory--sociological function; relief theory--psychological function; and incongruity theory--intellectual function. Classes filled with relevant…

The devaluation of racial, ethnic, or religious groups, sometimes disguised as humor, is a major contributor to violence and aggression against these groups. In an effort to understand this process, five factors of humor: negative ethnic stereotype jokes, play-on-word jokes, academic/social referent cartoons, gender/establishment jokes, and gross…