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Teacher humor: longitudinal effects on students’ emotions

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Abstract

Characteristics of teaching are associated with the emotions students experience in the classroom; however, empirical evidence regarding longitudinal effects is scarce. The present study investigated changes in positive and negative achievement emotions (enjoyment, boredom, and anger) vis-à-vis different teacher humor types (course-related, course-unrelated, self-disparaging, and aggressive), using the instructional humor processing theory and control-value theory of achievement emotions as a theoretical foundation. A total of 668 German upper track secondary school students from 41 classrooms with a mean age of 12.7 years (SD = 1.76) reported their perceptions of teacher humor and their experienced achievement emotions by completing online questionnaires (retest interval 6 months). Using the corresponding levels of emotions at the first measurement point as control values, results from multilevel analyses indicate that course-related humor weakens both decreases in enjoyment and increases in boredom and anger. Consistent with the hypotheses, aggressive humor leads to less enjoyment and more boredom and anger. Directions for future research are discussed and suggestions on how to best relate humor to course content are made.

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Notes

  1. To improve readability, we use the term emotions when referring to achievement emotions.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Augsburg, Universitätsstraße 10, 86159, Augsburg, Germany

    Sonja Bieg & Markus Dresel

  2. Department of Psychology, University of Education Weingarten, Kirchplatz 2, 88250, Weingarten, Germany

    Robert Grassinger

Authors
  1. Sonja Bieg
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  2. Robert Grassinger
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  3. Markus Dresel
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sonja Bieg.

Additional information

Sonja Bieg. Department of Psychology, University of Augsburg, Universitätsstraße 10, 86159 Augsburg, Germany. e-mail: sonja.bieg@phil.uni-augsburg.de

Current themes of research:

Teacher humor and its relation to students’ emotion, motivation and instructional characteristics, cross-sectional and longitudinal research.

Student motivation in secondary school and at university—diagnostic, promotion and investigation of the context conditions

Relation of teacher motivation with student emotion

Most relevant publications of all authors in the field of psychology of education:

Bieg, S. & Dresel, M. (2018). Relevance of perceived teacher humor types for instruction and student learning. Social Psychology of Education.

Thomas, A., Müller, F. & Bieg, S. (2018). Entwicklung und Validierung der Skalen zur motivationalen Regulation beim Lernen im Studium (SMR-LS). [Development and Validation of Scales for the Measurement of Motivational Regulation for Learning in University Students (SMR-LS)] Diagnostica, 64, 145–155.

Bieg, S., Grassinger, R. & Dresel, M. (2017). Humor as a magic bullet? Associations of different teacher humor types with student emotions. Learning and Individual Differences, 56, 24–33.

Bieg, S., Reindl, M., & Dresel, M. (2017). The relation between mastery goals and intrinsic motivation among university students: a longitudinal study. Educational Psychology, 37, 666–679.

Bieg, S. & Dresel, M. (2016). Fragebogen zur Erfassung des Humors von Lehrkräften aus Schülersicht (HUMLAS): Konstruktion und Validierung. [Construction and Validation of the german questionnaire to assess students’ perceptions of teacher humor] Diagnostica, 62, 3–15.

Bieg, S., Rickelman, R., Jones J. & Mittag, W. (2013). The role of teachers’ care and self-determined motivation in working with students in Germany and the United States, International Journal of Educational Research, 60, 27–37.

Robert Grassinger. Department of Psychology, University of Education Weingarten, Kirchplatz 2, 88250 Weingarten, Germany. e-mail: grassinger@ph-weingarten.de

Current themes of research:

Students’ Achievement Motivation and its changes

Self-Regulated Learning with a special focus on learning from errors

Gifted Education

Most relevant publications of all authors in the field of psychology of education:

Grassinger, R., Scheunpflug, A., Zeinz, H., & Dresel, M. (2018). From gifts to achievement—the relevance of adaptive reactions to errors, error climate and their interaction for achievement behavior. High Ability Studies, 29, 37–49.

Grassinger, R. (2018). Nicht erfüllte Erwartungen zu Studienbeginn und ihre Bedeutung für die Motivationsveränderung, das emotionale Erleben und die Intention zum Studienabbruch im ersten Semester [Unfulfilled expectancies for success, unfulfilled study values and their relevance for changes in achievement motivation, achievement emotions and the intention to drop out in the first semester of a degree program]. Zeitschrift für empirische Hochschulforschung, 2, 23–39.

Grassinger, R. & Dresel, M. (2017). Who learns from errors on a class test? Antecedents and profiles of adaptive reactions to errors in a failure situation. Learning and Individual Differences, 53, 61–68.

Grassinger, R., Steuer, G., Berner. V.-D., Zeinz, H., Scheinpflug, A. & Dresel, M. (2015). Ausprägung und Entwicklung adaptiver Reaktionen auf Fehler in der Sekundarstufe. [Magnitude and changes in adaptive dealing with errors in secondary school] Zeitschrift für Pädagogische Psychologie, 29, 215–225.

Grassinger, R. & Dresel, M. (2011). Antecedents of achievement goals: Results of a study in the context of mathematics instruction. In A. Ziegler & C. Perleth (Eds.), Excellence: Essays in honour of Kurt A. Heller (pp. 158–179). Münster: LIT–Verlag.

Ziegler, A., Stoeger, H. & Grassinger, R. (2011). Actiotope model and self-regulated learning. Psychological Test and Assessment Modeling, 53, 161–179.

Markus Dresel. Department of Psychology, University of Augsburg, Universitätsstraße 10, 86159 Augsburg, Germany. e-mail: markus.dresel@phil.uni-augsburg.de

Current themes of research:

Self-regulated learning

Teachers’ goal orientations

Procrastination as a risk factor for abortion of study

Most relevant publications of all authors in the field of psychology of education:

Dresel, M., Bieg S., Fasching, M. S., Steuer, G., Nitsche S. & Dickhäuser, O. (2014). Humor von Lehrkräften in der Schülerwahrnehmung: Abgrenzung von Lehrerenthusiasmus und Zusammenhänge mit Dimensionen des Unterrichts. [Teacher humor in the perception of students: Discrimination from teacher enthusiasm and associations with perceived instructional quality] Psychologie in Erziehung und Unterricht, 61, 56–74.

Dresel, M., Schmitz, B., Schober, B., Spiel, S., Ziegler, A., Engelschalk, T., Jöstl, G., Klug, J., Roth, A., Wimmer, B., & Steuer, G. (2015). Competencies for successful self-regulated learning in higher education: Structural model and indications drawn from expert interviews. Studies in Higher Education, 40, 454–470 (within a special issue edited by O. Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia and R. Shavelson)

Dresel, M., Schober, B., Ziegler, A., Grassinger, R. & Steuer, G. (2013). Affektiv-motivational adaptive und handlungsadaptive Reaktionen auf Fehler im Lernprozess. [Affective-motivational adaptive and action adaptive reactions on errors in learning processes] Zeitschrift für Pädagogische Psychologie, 27, 255–271.

This work was supported by the district administration in Augsburg, Bavaria, Germany.

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Bieg, S., Grassinger, R. & Dresel, M. Teacher humor: longitudinal effects on students’ emotions. Eur J Psychol Educ 34, 517–534 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10212-018-0402-0

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