The correlation between teachers’ humor and class climate: A study targeting primary and secondary school students

Abstract

This study investigated the relationship between types of humor (aggressive humor and affinity humor) of homeroom teachers, as recognized by their students, and five domains of class climate (mutual respect among the students, discipline, willingness, enjoyment, and resistance). The participants included a total of 500 students – 250 primary school students (fourth to sixth grade) and 250 secondary school students (seventh to ninth grade) in Japan. The students answered questions about their homeroom teacher’s type of humor and the climate of their class using a self-report scale. We labeled five variables of class climate as dependent variables, and two types of teachers’ humor as independent variables, and conducted a hierarchal multiple regression analysis with two steps. Findings showed that aggressive humor had a significant negative correlation to all positive class climates, and a significant positive correlation to negative class climates. Affinity humor indicated a significant correlation in the exact opposite manner to the above findings. Furthermore, the interaction effect of the two types of teachers’ humor was insignificant for every variable of class climate. The findings indicated that an ideal class climate could be created if teachers refrained as much as possible from using aggressive humor and used affinity humor.

Students’ Perception of Teachers’ Humor Predicts Their Mental Health

“…It was also demonstrated that the factor structures of these two types of teacher humor apply regardless of a students’ school-going age. Aggressive humor as identified by Tsukawaki et al. (2020) and Bieg and Dresel (2016) includes the similar elements of teasing and satirizing students.…”

“…It has been documented that some types of humor used by teachers in a classroom setting—such as humor related to the course content, humor directed at oneself, and humor not involving aggression against others—has social functions. These functions include the building of good relationships with students and creating a positive climate (e.g., Aylor & Oppliger, 2003; Claus et al., 2012; Sidelinger, 2014; Tsukawaki et al., 2020), in addition to educational functions, such as increasing the motivation for learning and promoting the understanding of class content (e.g., Bieg et al., 2017, 2019; Bieg & Dresel, 2018; Tsukawaki & Imura, 2020). Teachers’ adaptive humor is also thought to improve students’ mental health (Lei et al., 2010; Ziyaeemehr et al., 2011).…”

“…Tsukawaki et al. (2020), who conducted a survey of elementary and junior high school students in grades four through nine, revealed that there are two types of teachers’ humor: affinity humor, which is characterized by jokes that do not convey aggression and humor that promotes laughing at oneself; and aggressive humor, which is characterized by the use of humor related to the control and blame of others, such as sarcasm and teasing.…”

“…(2020) and Bieg and Dresel (2016) includes the similar elements of teasing and satirizing students. Meanwhile, affinity humor as presented by Tsukawaki et al. (2020) and self-disparaging humor by Bieg and Dresel (2016) share a common element in that teachers tease themselves.…”

“…As mentioned earlier, Bieg and Dresel (2016) proposed four types of teacher humor (humor unrelated to course content, self-disparaging humor, humor related to course content, and aggressive humor), and Tsukawaki et al. (2020) identified two types (affinity humor and aggressive humor); each study developed an instrument to measure the type of teacher humor as perceived by students.…”