To be funny or not to be funny: Gender differences in student perceptions of instructor humor in college science courses.

For over 50 years instructor humor has been recognized as a way to positively impact student cognitive and affective learning. However, no study has explored humor exclusively in the context of college science courses, which have the reputation of being difficult and boring. The majority of studies that explore humor have assumed that students perceive instructor humor to be funny, yet students likely perceive some instructor humor as unfunny or offensive. Further, evidence suggests that women perceive certain subjects to be more offensive than men, yet we do not know what impact this may have on the experience of women in the classroom. To address these gaps in the literature, we surveyed students across 25 different college science courses about their perceptions of instructor humor in college science classes, which yielded 1637 student responses. Open-coding methods were used to analyze student responses to a question about why students appreciate humor. Multinomial regression was used to identify whether there are gender differences in the extent to which funny, unfunny, and offensive humor influenced student attention to course content, instructor relatability, and student sense of belonging. Logistic regression was used to examine gender differences in what subjects students find funny and offensive when joked about by college science instructors. Nearly 99% of students reported that they appreciate instructor humor and reported that it positively changes the classroom atmosphere, improves student experiences during class, and enhances the student-instructor relationship. We found that funny humor tends to increase student attention to course content, instructor relatability, and student sense of belonging. Conversely, offensive humor tends to decrease instructor relatability and student sense of belonging. Lastly, we identified subjects that males were more likely to find funny and females were more likely to find offensive if a college science instructor were to joke about them

Student responses to the statement “I appreciate when instructors use humor in college science classrooms”.

Student responses to the statement “I appreciate when instructors use humor in college science classrooms”.</p

To be funny or not to be funny: Gender differences in student perceptions of instructor humor in college science courses - Fig 2

A. Student perception of how instructor use of funny, unfunny, and offensive humor affect their attention to course content. B. Student perception of how funny, unfunny, and offensive humor affect instructor relatability. C. Student perception of how funny, unfunny, and offensive humor affect their sense of belonging to the course.</p

The percent of students who, if a science instructor were to tell a joke about a specific subject, might find the joke funny and might find the joke offensive.

The percent of students who, if a science instructor were to tell a joke about a specific subject, might find the joke funny and might find the joke offensive.</p

Gender differences in what subjects students report they might find offensive if an instructor of a college science course were to tell a joke about them.

Gender differences in what subjects students report they might find offensive if an instructor of a college science course were to tell a joke about them.</p

Multinomial regression coefficients for models used to determine whether there are gender differences in the extent to which funny, unfunny, and offensive humor affects student self-reported attention to course content, instructor relatability, and sense of belonging to the class.

Multinomial regression coefficients for models used to determine whether there are gender differences in the extent to which funny, unfunny, and offensive humor affects student self-reported attention to course content, instructor relatability, and sense of belonging to the class.</p

Gender differences in what subjects students report they might find funny if an instructor of a college science course were to tell a joke about them.

Gender differences in what subjects students report they might find funny if an instructor of a college science course were to tell a joke about them.</p

Students’ reasons why they appreciate instructor use of humor in college science classrooms.

Students’ reasons why they appreciate instructor use of humor in college science classrooms.</p

Demographics of students who completed the humor survey.

Demographics of students who completed the humor survey.</p