TEACHERS' PERCEPTIONS OF HUMOUR IN TEACHING

During the last years more and more teachers move away from the traditional pedagogic perception according to which humour does not fit the serious work of teaching. This development is connected i.a. with the realization and empirical verification of the positive effects of humour from the Education Science and other scientific disciplines (Medicine, Psychology etc.). Despite this, research shows that some teachers avoid humourous situations in the classroom, because a) they are afraid that they may lose control of the students, b) they do not believe in humour's positive effects and c) they construe teaching as a very serious affair. There is also evidence that teachers use humour in their classroom in order to attract the attention and the interest of students, to decrease the stress of teaching, to improve the social climate and their relation with the students, to promote learning, but also to feel themselves comfortably and relaxed. The studies on humour in the classroom have increased by far in recent years. This shows the importance of humour in teaching but also contributes in the clarification of teachers' perceptions and practices about humour and the terms and conditions for humour's presence in the classroom. In this frame we investigated the perceptions of 766 teachers of elementary school in Greece concerning humour in their teaching. More concretely we examined the perceptions of teachers concerning the advantages of humour but also the likely dangers that may come from it, the frequency and the forms of humour that they use in their teaching and finally their more general appreciation for the importance of humour in their teaching.