Slide 1: Comedy Central: Humor in Library Instruction Billie E. Walker Penn State – Berks Reference Librarian
Slide 2: KEEP IT REAL
Slide 3: Humor in the classroom is a twentieth century phenomenon (Wandersee, 1982)
Slide 4: Benefits of Humor to Learners     Retention of Material Student-teacher Rapport Attentiveness and Interest Motivation towards and Satisfaction with Learning
Slide 5: Benefits of Humor to Learners     Playfulness and Positive Attitude Class Discussion Academic Stress Anxiety toward Subject Matter (Korobkin, 1988)
Slide 6: Fun Mood An instructor who actively shares in the humor helps to cultivate freer interaction, idea generation and group cohesiveness while reducing social anxiety, conformity, and dogmatism. (Ziv, 1976)
Slide 7: Why Use Humor in the Classroom? Two important reasons: • • Librarian-Student Connection Engages Student in the Learning Process
Slide 8: The planned use of humor can spark student recall long after the lesson is over. (Kaplan & Pascoe, 1977)
Slide 9: Laughter is the Best Medicine
Slide 10: Library Anxiety Library anxiety can be described as “an uncomfortable feeling or disposition experienced in a library situation” (Jiao, Onwuegbuzie & Lichtenstein, 1996)
Slide 11: Library anxiety   Relative size of the library Lack of knowledge about the location of materials, equipment, and resources of the library How to initiate library research How to proceed with a library search (Mellon, 1986).  
Slide 12: Library anxiety  Students often perceive that they are the only ones who do not know how to use the library and who lack library skills. High-anxious students feel that other students are adept at using the library, while they alone are inept.  (Mellon, 1986)
Slide 13: Inappropriate humor in the Classroom  Ethnic  Racist  Sexist  Religious  Insult or sarcasm
Slide 14: Any word, object, or action that violates a person’s values, moral principles, or norms of behavior would be offensive (Veatch, 1998).
Slide 15: Culture-Free Humor Student Life  Types of Courses  Technology problems, especially PCs  Mega-hit Movies  Pets  Food 
Slide 16: Factors That Can Affect Laughter in the Classroom  Physical Arrangements “Sardine-Can Theory of Laughter” Class Size Classroom Atmosphere Gender   
Slide 17: Creating Magic in the Classroom
Slide 18: Humor as a tool for library instruction is not for everyone
Slide 19: Cultivating One’s Sense of Humor Be Natural  Self-Confidence  Laughs at the trails and trivialities of life  Presentation Skills  Audience Needs  Be Spontaneous 
Slide 20: How Do You Learn to Be Funny?  Selectionist Approach Frequency and Sensitivity Classroom Application  
Slide 21: Selectionist Approach          Generate a large pool of jokes Practice them Test them out Fine tune them Select the best ones Get a job at a comedy club Leave academia Star in your own sitcom Become rich and famous
Slide 22: Frequency and Sensitivity Two variables are critical to learning this process: • • Joking frequency Sensitivity to social responses
Slide 23: Classroom Application Props  Anecdotes  Personal Experiences  Cartoons  Humorous Questions and Examples  Music 
Slide 24: Assessment The simplest and most feasible approach to obtaining feedback is to ask your students directly. (Berk, 2002)
Slide 25: Scale Construction  Does humor help to improve the students ability to learn the subject matter? Does humor help to grab the students attention, increase their interest, reduce anxiety/stress, and make class fun? Suggestions  
Slide 26: LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTIVE LEARNING Are you a performer? Lecture from a script, notes or memory  Demonstrate concepts with props  Manipulate your voice (volume, pitch)  Inject humor  Add music 
Slide 27: Billie’s Examples One-liners  Web Deception  Self-Deprecatiion  Wacky but True  Music 
Slide 28: Comedy Central: Humor in Library Instruction  Conclusion Humor is not a substitute for teaching, but when used properly it can be a powerful and delightful tool for library instruction. Not every example needs to be funny. Try to strike a balance.
Slide 29: Bibliography    Berk, R.A. (2002). Humor as an instructional defibrillator. Stylus Publishing. Kaplan, R.M. & Pascoe, G.C. (1977). Humorous lectures and humorous examples: Some effects upon comprehension and retention. Journal of Educational Psychology. 69:61-65. Korobkin, D. (1988). Humor in the classroom: Considerations and Strategies. College Teaching. 36:154-158.
Slide 30: Bibliography     Mellon, C.A. (1986). Library anxiety: A grounded theory and its development. College and Research Libraries. 47:160-165. Wandersee, J.H. (1982). Humor as a teaching strategy. The American Biology Teacher. 44:212218. Veatch, T.C. (1998). A theory of humor. HUMOR: International Journal of Humor Research. 11:161-215. Ziv, A. (1976). Facilitating effects of humor on creativity. Journal of Educational Psychology. 68:318-322.
Slide 31: Comedy Central: Humor in Library Instruction Contact Info: Billie E. Walker Penn State – Berks Reference Librarian bew11@psu.edu