Facilitating the Development of Humor in Electrical

Engineering Students
Peter O’Shea Philip Terrill
School of ITEE School of ITEE
University of Queensland University of Queensland
Brisbane, Australia Brisbane, Australia
[email protected] [email protected]

Abstract—Much has been written about teachers developing one of them - humor. When humor is invoked during times of
their humor so that they can improve the effectiveness of their stress, it enables a person to laugh in the face of their
teaching. Much less has been written, however, about training difficulties. In so doing, stress and positive emotions are able to
students to develop their humor - this is a significant shortcoming simultaneously exist within a person’s consciousness. Humor is
because research shows that the skill of humor can help a thus a powerful antidote to the negative impact of stress.
student’s future career greatly. This paper explores the
facilitation of humor in students within the context of an Studies have long suggested that technical skills account for
Electrical Engineering program, with a view to increasing only a small portion of the variance in engineers’ career
students’ long-term employability. success. As early as 1918 a study by the Carnegie Foundation
found that 85% of an engineer’s success was due to human
Keywords—humor, TEACHERS, STUDENTS, CAREER SUCCESS engineering skills, with only 15% being due to technical skills
[3]. While the Carnegie Foundation identified the importance
I. INTRODUCTION of human engineering skills generally, the Grant Study drilled
down deeper to find the specific human skills that were
Humor is known to have many benefits. When university important for professionals. As alluded to already, humor is one
teachers use humor in class, students tend to [1]: of those skills.
• report an improved student experience, Various other studies have confirmed the potential of
• retain information better, humor to advance a person’s career. Joint research at Wharton
and Harvard has found that if people make an effort to tell
• think more divergently and jokes at work, their employers and co-workers perceive them as
being confidant and competent [4]. Joke tellers are perceived to
• demonstrate better cognitive insightfulness. be confidant even if the jokes are not especially funny,
provided they are not offensive. Other research has found that
There is good reason, then, for university educators to executives who routinely use humor are paid more and are
incorporate humor into their teaching. Humor, however, has promoted faster than their peers [5]. Additionally, a Robert
broader potential than simply as an aid to classroom teaching. Half survey found that 91% of executives believe a sense of
The 75-year Grant Study of Adult Development at Harvard is humor is important for career advancement [6]. In light of the
the longest prospective study of biosocial development ever potential of humor to boost a person’s career, it is appropriate
to expend some effort within a student’s training to develop
conducted. That study investigated the characteristics
their comedic potential.
associated with those who were successful in their careers and
in their life more generally. It was found that one of the The key research questions addressed in this paper are:
strongest predictors of a person’s career success was the
• Research Question 1: Does classroom training in humor
maturity of their ‘adaptation mechanisms’ for dealing with
engage students effectively in the classroom?
stressful situations. The five key adaptation mechanisms
associated with successful professionals were found to be [2]: • Research Question 2: Does classroom training in humor
cause students to increase their engagement with humor
• humor, beyond the classroom environment?
• altruism (helping others), • Research Question 3: Are students able to transfer their
• suppression (self-control) classroom training to their employment situations?
The remainder of the paper is organised as follows. Section
• anticipation, and
II outlines an evidence-based scheme for training students in
• sublimation (channeling frustrations into positive the use of humor. Section III evaluates this training process,
actions). with a view to answering the above research questions. Finally,
Section IV presents conclusions.
Now all of the above five adaptation mechanisms are
important, but for reasons of space, this paper will focus on just

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 Robin Williams was one of the most acclaimed
II. TRAINING STUDENTS IN THE USE OF HUMOR comedians of all time. One of the key ways he built up his
comedic skills was to study the example of experts. As a
A. An Evidence Based Approach to Facilitating Humour in young man he watched the many routines of Jonathan
Students Winters and committed them to memory.
Humor is a generic skill and research shows that there are
three key steps in the facilitation of generic skills [7]. Those Williams also watched and studied the comedy antics of
steps are described below. Peter Sellars. After studying the examples from his
mentors and getting his head around their way of doing
• Step 1: Identify and articulate the cognitive strategies
used by experts when they function in their expert things he started practicing himself. He took risks with his
capacity. practice and went from strength to strength. He
increasingly succeeded among his peers, then in clubs,
• Step 2. Devise prompts that can help learners to engage then on TV and then in feature films.
with the cognitive strategies articulated in Step 1. The T h i ibl l f h
prompts can be examples, focused questions, hints,
physical models, checklists, relevant analogies and The second type of example presented to students revolves
metaphors, cue cards, concept maps, summaries, around exploiting comedy to explicitly mitigate stress. A
suggestions, completion of parts of problems for typical case study is given below.
students, etc.
• Step 3. Assist the learners to repeatedly and deliberately
practice the cognitive strategies in Step 1 with the aid of Matthew (a pseudonym) was going through one of the
the prompts devised in Step 2. most difficult periods of his life and his emotional state
was fragile. He felt like he was on the verge of falling into
depression. If he did fall into depression he would
This three-step process is known as cognitive strategy
probably have had to take time off work and it would have
scaffolding (CSS). Its application to the development of humor
adversely affected his career.
in Electrical Engineering students at the University of
Queensland is outlined in the following subsections.
His sister had recently given him a DVD collection
B. Identifying and Articulating the Cognitive Strategies of containing all he episodes of one of his favorite situation
Experts comedies. He seized on the opportunity to watch these
Experts in workplace humor tend to [2][5][8][9]: DVDs every night after work. As he watched the DVDs he
laughed a lot and his mood was buoyed considerably.
i) develop humor by studying examples, then practice, While the stress in his life did not disappear, he was better
ii) use surprise and deliberate misdirection in their humor, able to cope with that stress. He did not fall into
iii) use analogies and hyperboles (exaggeration) together, depression, and as a consequence, did not need to take any
iv) keep their humor as brief as possible, time off work.
v) use images as well as words to convey humor,
vi) use their hands to assist their delivery,
vii) avoid using comedy which could be offensive, The third type of example involves a presentation of
viii) use comedy to mitigate stress, comedy examples. Selected Monty Python video clips, for
ix) use their painful experiences as fuel for their humor, example, are played just before the start of lectures in the
x) tell jokes in person rather than via email, University of Queensland’s introductory course on Python
xi) refrain from over-using their humor. programming. The Python language was named after the
Monty Python comedy troupe and many of the common
C. Establishing Prompts to Engage Students with the Expert examples given to illustrate the language’s syntax are based on
Strategies lines from Monty Python skits. In addition to presenting the
Various different prompts are used to engage electrical above examples, students are presented with evidence on the
engineering students in the use of the above 11 strategies at the potential of humor for boosting their career.
University of Queensland. These ways are discussed below. Strategy ii) is modelled for students by engaging them
To invoke Strategy i) students are presented with various alternatively in a serious way and then suddenly in a very light
types of examples. The first type of example presented to hearted way. Students are informed that the practice of
students pertains to the process of developing humor. This type summarising course material strongly enhances learning and
of example is provided via case studies, with a typical one they are exhorted to summarise material from a previous
being presented below. lecture. Then they are then told that they can win a packet of
Tim Tam biscuits if they summarise this material within a rap.

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To help the students capture a vision for the rapping an • Criteria 2: Does classroom training in humor cause
example of a previous year’s rap is shown to the students. students to increase their engagement with humor
beyond the classroom environment?
The raps devised by students are often replete with
analogies and exaggerations, as per Strategy iii). These raps • Criteria 3: Are students able to transfer the humor in the
also often have surprises/misdirection and energetic hand classroom to their employment situations?
movements (as per Strategies ii) and vi)). All of the humor
initiatives within class are kept brief (typically less than 5 Evaluation of these different criteria is addressed in the
minutes) in keeping with Strategies iv) and xi). following sub-sections.

To convey funny images, students and staff are encouraged B. Criteria 1: Does Classroom Training in Humor Engage
to create rap videos. These videos contain funny images and Students Effectively in the Classroom?
movements as per Strategies v) and vi). The students also make
fun of some of the painful experiences in their course, in line The data from the University of Queensland’s Institute for
with Strategy ix). Teaching and Learning Innovation (ITALI) provides
independently sourced qualitative and quatitative data related to
Students are explicitly told to keep their contributions to be student engagement in all units at the university. The Electrical
non-offensive in accordance with Strategy vii). The vast Engineering unit with the most deliberate comedic
majority of the humor is conducted in class rather than by interventions is the first year unit, “Introduction to Electrical
email, as per Strategy x). Circuits” (ENGG1300). According to ITALI’s data, this unit is
the most popular engineering unit in the generalist first year
The above prompts are peppered throughout the lectures of
course, with the overall satisfaction score for that unit in
the various units in the Electrical Engineering degree, but
Semester 1, 2017 being 4.5/5.0. This compares with an
particularly in the first year units. There is a focus on first year
engineering wide first year unit satisfaction average of 3.76/5.0.
so that students are alerted to the importance of humor as soon
as possible. Is there any indication that the humorous thrust in the unit,
ENGG1300, contributes substantially to its level of popularity
D. Assisting Learners to Practice Using the Cognitive and student engagement? To answer this question the free form
Strategies in Step 1 with the Aid of Prompts comments in ITALI’s database were examined. Of the 33
The practice of humor occurs via various mechanisms comments on the positive aspects of the teaching in Semester 1,
within the Electrical Engineering program, as discussed below. 2017, 14 were commented on the humorous/fun elements in the
course. This strongly suggests that the comedic interventions
• Students create raps to summarise course material and contributed positively and substantially to student appreciation
make comments on their course experience. of the unit.
• Students perform the raps they have devised in front of In summary, then, the data indicates that training in humor
their peers. does seem to engage students in the classroom.
• Students practice spontaneous humor in game shows C. Criteria 2: Does Classroom Training in Humor Cause
such as “Who wants to be an electrical engineer?”
Students to Engage with Humor More Beyond the
Within these game shows students participate either as
Classroom Environment?
contestants or as members of the actively involved
‘studio audience’. To evaluate this criteria social media was monitored. A
number of pertinent posts were found to have been made by
• Students tell jokes to one another in selected prac students on Facebook, most notably the university wide
sessions for about three minutes. Facebook site known as “UQ Stalkerspace”. See, for example,
• Students do impersonations of their lecturer(s) in some (https://www.facebook.com/groups/uqstalkerspace/permalink/1
lectures. 412217995497007/). A number of classroom raps were posted
to this site and one of them received 796 likes and 63
• Students engage in light hearted banter during their comments, with virtually all of these comments being positive.
active learning sessions and practical exercises. From this monitoring it was clear that students were indeed
responding to the classroom initiatives outside of class.
III. EVALUATION
D. Criteria 3: Are Students Able to Transfer the Humor in the
A. Criteria of Evaluation Classroom to their Employment Situations?
Three different criteria were used to evaluate the Staff evaluated this criteria by monitoring the behaviour of
effectiveness of the initiatives for developing humor in students who gained employment as tutors at the University of
students. These three criteria were derived from the three Queensland. The staff investigated how student tutors
research questions listed in Section I, and are listed below: responded to an idea planted into their minds. The staff
suggested that the students create a humorous video which they
• Criteria 1: Does classroom training in humor engage could use in their teaching. The staff gave the students no
students effectively in the classroom? assistance – they simply made the suggestion.

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 The response to the suggestion was remarkable. The tutors • Make sure that rewards are provided when trying to
compiled a music video about preparing students for their increase student participation (eg. in gameshows). These
practical examination, which was posted onto the internet. This rewards stimulate the fun aspect and tend to stop the
video is viewable at the web-address: initiative from appearing ‘lame’.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63zhUJjqjTU. The video
has so far received more than 11,500 views and has solicited • Make sure all initiatives are well planned.
many positive comments not only from students but also from • Have more courses with active learning sessions where
academic staff. The Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and students work together in teams during class time. This
Information Technology has gone so far as to post the video on allows humorous banter to take place.
its Facebook page. The tutors’ initiative therefore arguably
attracted more attention than anything the academic staff had • Rotate teams within group work often so that students
done. This phenomenon indicates that students are indeed able have opportunities to make friends.
to transfer their experiences within the class to their
employment scenarios. IV. CONCLUSIONS
Humor is an important generic skill which can greatly
E. Student Focus Group
enhance a person’s career and it is worth going to some effort
As part of the evaluation process a student focus group was to develop and practice this skill. Since research shows that the
run to solicit student feedback about the humor/fun initiatives most effective practice is ‘deliberate practice’ it is important to
within the Electrical Engineering course. The focus group was be explicit and deliberate about the development of humor
conducted by the unit co-ordinator of ENGG1300 and the during a student’s training. This paper has shown that it is
following questions were used as prompts to generate possible to pepper initiatives throughout an Electrical
discussion among the students. Engineering course which i) engage students in humor within
• What humor/fun initiatives within the Electrical the classroom, ii) make students more likely to engage with
Engineering program have you found engaging? humor outside of the class and iii) can prompt students to
engage more with humor in the workplace.
• Does the humor/fun within class prompt you to engage
more with humor outside the class? REFERENCES
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of students with humor/fun in the future? Foundation, pp. 106-107, 1918.
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initiatives within the course were:

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