engleski

Humour in teaching mathematics and computer science courses - yes or no?

The aim of this study was to examine the role of humor in teaching mathematics and computer science courses at Faculty of Teacher Education in Osijek. The paper explores whether the humor is used and in which intensity it is used as an effective mean of teaching and communication at mathematics and computer science classes, and it also identifies which acceptable form of humor is most often used. Furthermore, the paper investigates whether the use of humor in teaching computer science and mathematics courses has a stimulating effect on the environment for learning in the sense of creating a nice "classroom" climate without stress. During this research two questionnaires were created and used. One of the designed questionnaires was used to test students' attitude about the use of humor in teaching. In fact we wanted to see whether or not students participated in the teaching process which included humor in some of its acceptable forms, was the effect of that humor stimulating for their learning and did it have impact on overall impression of the course where the humor was used and what effect did the use of humor had on communication with the teacher who has using it. The second questionnaire was used to collect data from teachers themselves, and it was based analogous to the first questionnaire. Answers obtained by the means of used questionnaires were analyzed and the results showed that although teachers of mathematics and computer science courses at Faculty of Teacher Education in Osijek recognize the benefits of using humor in the classroom, they use it rarely and occasionally in the practice.

humour in the classroom, improving the learning environment, attitude of students, the impact of humour in communication

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