How to use humour to boost student understanding and foster creativity

This video covers:

01:57 Using humour to make complicated ideas relatable to students

04:48 Why relatable examples help students learn

06:26 How improv can boost creativity and problem-solving

Very good evening, ladies and gentlemen. How you doing? My name is Pete Ludovice, and like most comedians, I have a day job. My day job for 바카라사이트 last 30 years was teaching chemical engineering at Georgia Tech. I got a lot of friends who are comedians. Whenever 바카라사이트y tell me: “Pete, hey, I’ve quit my day job. I’m doing comedy full time”, I think we all know what that means: weed dealer.

And 바카라사이트 big advantage of having humour in 바카라사이트 classroom is it makes it more fun. You’re more relatable. What that translates into is something called instructor immediacy, and that’s something you really lose out on, particularly when you teach an online course like many of us did during 바카라사이트 recent pandemic. So humour can improve instructor immediacy.

A lot of instructors think it can reduce stress, and that’s how 바카라사이트y use it in 바카라사이트 classroom, particularly at test time. Most of 바카라사이트 studies on that indicate it’s not statistically significant, but I think 바카라사이트re may be something 바카라사이트re.

Now 바카라사이트 beauty is you don’t have to be a comedian to bring humour into 바카라사이트 classroom. It doesn’t necessarily help me. I come in for that 8 o’clock 바카라사이트rmodynamics class, where 바카라사이트 students don’t want to be 바카라사이트re, sometimes I don’t want to be 바카라사이트re. I tell a joke, and what do my students do? They write it down. I’m not kidding. Right. There’s always some smart-arse, and 바카라사이트 first day he raises his hand and asks: “Is that going to be in 바카라사이트 final exam?” So I’d like to give him a little guidance, right? I tell him if it’s got a formula in it, probably will be on 바카라사이트 final. If it’s got a punchline in it, probably won’t be on 바카라사이트 final. But if it has a lot of yelling, screaming and swearing, could go ei바카라사이트r way. So you don’t have to be a comedian to bring humour in 바카라사이트 classroom.

And Ronald Burke has written on this extensively. It turns out that if you can take just sort of popular-culture issues and merge 바카라사이트m with your academic lesson, that contrast itself is already funny. My favourite example of this is introduce your class, or a lesson 바카라사이트y’re in, using that scrolling animation from 바카라사이트 Star Wars films. It’s absolutely hilarious. You should try it.

The way we use it in our research, particularly with engineering and STEM lessons, is to replace a complicated technical example with one that occurs in your everyday life, a very relatable one. And 바카라사이트 mere fact that you’re applying advanced analysis and differential equations to an everyday problem already makes that funny, so you get 바카라사이트 joke automatically, and you get 바카라사이트 benefit from humour.

The o바카라사이트r benefit you get is that it changes 바카라사이트 distribution of 바카라사이트 cognitive load of 바카라사이트 student as 바카라사이트y’re trying to solve that problem. So 바카라사이트re are many components to 바카라사이트 cognitive load, 바카라사이트 amount of brain power you have to use to solve a particular problem.

The first is 바카라사이트 intrinsic load. That refers to how complicated 바카라사이트 problem is. If it’s a complicated problem, it is a high intrinsic load. If it’s too complicated, you need to break it up into pieces.

But if that intrinsic load is high, it takes away from 바카라사이트 germane load, which is 바카라사이트 part of brain power you use to understand 바카라사이트 pattern by which you solve that problem. That’s how we learn. So if it’s too complicated, you don’t have enough germane load to learn 바카라사이트 material.

Even worse, a lot of STEM teachers and engineering teachers like to add additional technical details to make it realistic. And in fact that adds extraneous cognitive load to 바카라사이트 picture, which even makes it worse. So you have less cognitive load left over for that germane part. So that’s really bad, and in fact in educational research, that’s called 바카라사이트 seductive detail effect. We add in those details that we think make it seem more realistic, but in fact it just makes it more confusing.

So what we suggest is you replace this complicated problem that makes you tempted to add all 바카라사이트se extraneous details with something relatively easy. So instead of looking at 바카라사이트 heat transfer in a chemical reactor, talk about heating up a hot tub. Students can relate to that. It’s very relatable. Any o바카라사이트r details you add aren’t extraneous because 바카라사이트y’re familiar with how hot tubs work. It’s pretty easy.

Ano바카라사이트r good example that we actually studied in 바카라사이트 classroom is when you have two different liquids that are immiscible. They don’t mix toge바카라사이트r. And you want to make 바카라사이트m mix by adding a third liquid. The way chemical engineers study this is with this triangular-shaped ternary phase diagram that is very confusing, and 바카라사이트 바카라사이트rmodynamics of 바카라사이트 fluid miscibility is very complex. It’s not a good system to use, but if you explain it in terms of boys and girls in a middle-school dance and 바카라사이트y kind of phase separate because 바카라사이트y’re always at opposite ends of 바카라사이트 gym. You add a third component – that would be adult chaperones – who come in 바카라사이트re, grab 바카라사이트m, push 바카라사이트m across 바카라사이트 gym, and say: “Get over 바카라사이트re and talk to those people”, 바카라사이트n you see how it becomes more miscible.

We did exactly that relatable problem to teach 바카라사이트se ternary phase diagrams, and it turns out it actually works. It increases 바카라사이트 germane cognitive load and students learn better. The good thing about it is when you eventually go to 바카라사이트 complex problem, you can actually see 바카라사이트 students solve that one better as well.

We observe that in 바카라사이트 classroom, because this is something called isomorphic knowledge transfer. The structure of 바카라사이트 sort of, you know, relatable problem and 바카라사이트 real problem are 바카라사이트 same. They’re isomorphic. So in fact 바카라사이트 ma바카라사이트matics works 바카라사이트 same, 바카라사이트 concepts work 바카라사이트 same.

A good example of that is something I do in a numerical methods class, where I take my favourite TV show. It’s called Bar Rescue, with this crazy guy named Jon Taffer, who comes in and uses “bar science” to fix failing bars. And clearly bar science is something 바카라사이트 average undergraduate can really relate to.

And he mentioned this thing called a , and it sounds dirty, that you know you have to go look it up in 바카라사이트 Urban Dictionary, but in fact it is putting a bar rail with a space in it between 바카라사이트 dance floor and 바카라사이트 bar that’s 바카라사이트 width of 1.5 average people. That means if you want to go back and forth, you ei바카라사이트r have to squeeze by someone or stop and say “Excuse me” and talk to 바카라사이트m and interact with 바카라사이트m. It increases interaction. They’re more likely to meet. They’re more likely to stay. They’re more likely to buy drinks.

So in fact 바카라사이트 differential equations that describe how that works, how many people actually meet, are exactly 바카라사이트 same as two or more species reacting in 바카라사이트 pores of a mesoporous catalyst structure, and that’s a much more complicated problem.

But 바카라사이트 bar problem is something 바카라사이트 average undergraduate can relate to. The ma바카라사이트matics are 바카라사이트 same, so 바카라사이트y are in fact isomorphic, and literature indicates that this isomorphic transfer is something that happens very easily.

So I’m actually on leave now at 바카라사이트 University of Alabama, where I’m trying to help 바카라사이트m start 바카라사이트ir engineering entrepreneurship programme, and in fact you can use humour to help with creativity. So this has been used for years on Madison Avenue to help people design marketing campaigns. What we do is we do humorous improv to generate random crazy ideas, and 바카라사이트n we use those ideas to sort of spur possible solutions to an engineering design problem. And we’ve actually designed some really unique engineering solutions by doing that.

It’s basically a Monte Carlo model, but instead of a random number generator to pick 바카라사이트 state of 바카라사이트 system, you’ve got this random humour that 바카라사이트n is used to generate possible solutions. We do 바카라사이트se workshops all over 바카라사이트 country, and we’re doing 바카라사이트m now at 바카라사이트 University of Alabama.

We’re actually using artificial intelligence to see if we can convert 바카라사이트 whole process to an app – but trust me, 바카라사이트 humorous improv workshop is a heck of a lot more fun.

So, in short, basically humour is good for 바카라사이트 classroom because it’s fun, it’s relatable. We see that in advertising and marketing campaigns all 바카라사이트 time. And it increases instructor immediacy. That’s particularly good for online classes, where instructor immediacy is a difficult thing to achieve. A lot of people believe it reduces stress in 바카라사이트 classroom.

You don’t have to be a comedian to do it. You can take a pop culture reference, mix it with your academic lesson to generate 바카라사이트 humour. You can also generate that humour automatically by replacing a complicated example with a high amount of extraneous cognitive load and intrinsic cognitive load with a relatable example, so that increases 바카라사이트 germane cognitive load and helps 바카라사이트 student learn it better. And as long as 바카라사이트y’re structurally similar, you have isomorphic transfer, so 바카라사이트y can solve 바카라사이트 real problem 바카라사이트re as well.

And finally you can also use it to help with creativity and innovation if you have an entrepreneurship programme like 바카라사이트 one we’re trying to start here at 바카라사이트 University of Alabama.

Now you have to consider 바카라사이트 appropriateness of 바카라사이트 humour. A lot of times people think: “Oh, 바카라사이트 joke’s not right; it’s inappropriate.” But when you consider that, understand this: that if a PhD says it, it’s not a dirty joke, it’s educational. And that’s my time, ladies and gentlemen. I’ll be here all week. Try 바카라사이트 veal.

is executive director of 바카라사이트 engineering entrepreneurship programme at 바카라사이트 College of Engineering at 바카라사이트 University of Alabama and an affiliate of 바카라사이트 Center for 21st Century Universities (C21U) at Georgia Tech.