{"id":461,"date":"2022-04-12T09:48:28","date_gmt":"2022-04-12T13:48:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/baldwin-clt-teaching-times\/?p=461"},"modified":"2022-04-12T09:48:28","modified_gmt":"2022-04-12T13:48:28","slug":"what-educators-can-learn-from-comedians-by-david-stolin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/baldwin-clt-teaching-times\/teaching\/what-educators-can-learn-from-comedians-by-david-stolin\/","title":{"rendered":"What Educators Can Learn from Comedians by David Stolin"},"content":{"rendered":"

Engaging Students Through Humor\u2014and a Little Absurdity\u2014Makes Complex Topics Stick (Full Article here, excerpt below)<\/a><\/p>\n

Over the last several years, I\u2019ve been collaborating with comedian Sammy Obeid (known for hosting the\u00a0Netflix series\u00a0100 Humans<\/i><\/a>). Through this collaboration, I have come to believe that any topic, however forbidding or unexciting it may seem, can be explained better through humor. Here, I\u2019ll detail how Sammy and I tackled this humor challenge and share ideas for how you can do so yourself\u2014whether you think you are funny or not.<\/p>\n

Our analysis showed<\/a>\u00a0that when students were assigned humorous videos, they had consistently higher engagement and subsequent test performance.<\/p>\n

The Educational Humorist\u2019s Toolkit: Hyperbole and Analogy<\/h3>\n

Hyperbole: The \u201cBut\u201d of a Joke<\/h4>\n

To create comic effect with hyperbole, you simply exaggerate something to the point of absurdity. It\u2019s a powerful tool for injecting humor when introducing a concept that may strike the learner as surprising or unexpected (and therefore especially in need of additional illumination). The starting point is to link the unexpected concept with the initial expectation using the conjunction \u201cbut.\u201d To illustrate this, I asked a colleague for a \u201cbut\u201d claim that she might use in teaching. Her answer: \u201cA good leader needs to be able to adapt to the circumstances, but this may also make them inauthentic.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ability to adapt to circumstances can make you a great leader\u2014the kind who will inspire their followers, empower them to do things they never thought possible, and enable them to change the world\u2014or it can make them see you as a total phony.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

Analogy: \u201cThe Fuel and Fire of Thinking\u201d\u2014and of Humor<\/h4>\n

Sammy Obeid says, \u201cBoth jokes and learning can share a similar structural property: analogy. If you don\u2019t understand X, let me explain that by pointing out Y, where X is an abstract concept and Y is something more relatable. We do this often in education to make concepts accessible, and similarly in comedy because it gets a laugh. The only difference in comedy is heightening the absurdity of the analogy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Nobel laureate Merton Miller once summarized the capital structure irrelevance theorem he codeveloped\u00a0in this way<\/a>: \u201cThink of the firm as a gigantic pizza, divided into quarters. If now, you cut each quarter in half into eighths, [our] proposition says that you will have more pieces, but not more pizza.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSome finance managers argue that by swapping company stock for debt, they can increase company value. Modigliani and Miller showed that this is like hoping to change a pizza\u2019s size by how you slice it. If your little nephew did this, it would be adorable; you\u2019d want to hug him and buy him ice cream. But appoint him as your chief financial officer? The kid shouldn\u2019t be allowed one step outside the accounts receivable department.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stand and Deliver (and Deliver and Deliver)<\/h3>\n

Delivering a joke is different from writing it. Precision, expressiveness, and timing are all skills that require dedicated practice. Sammy Obeid honed his act through\u00a0a record-setting 1,001 consecutive performances<\/a>. In one faculty workshop, I showed two versions of a humorous educational video Sammy and I coscripted\u2014first as recorded by me, then by Sammy. The participants\u2019 faces said everything I needed to know about my future in entertainment. But then again, that\u2019s not my ambition. I just want to become a better teacher and thinking about myself as a performer helps.<\/p>\n

In fact, we educators have something that aspiring performers would kill for\u2014ready access to audiences and the freedom to experiment and evolve our \u201cact\u201d based on audience feedback. Teachers sometimes complain about the drudgery of delivering the same content again and again. I suggest viewing such repetition as an opportunity to work on our material, just like comedians do. What if I insert a longer pause here, make a different gesture there, and each time note the class\u2019s reception?<\/p>\n

Consider the Implications of Your Humor<\/h3>\n

Thinking ahead about different learners\u2019 perspectives is key. Are you worried that the mention of the accounts receivable department in the earlier example would offend someone in your class who takes pride in this kind of work? You can change the name of the department, use different departments in subsequent jokes, or replace that line with something else entirely. Likewise, if a joke doesn\u2019t get a laugh, simply have a fallback ready, such as, \u201cHmmm, my parents said they loved this joke\u2026 I need a different test group.\u201d View these as part of the challenge\u2014one that will help you connect better with your students in the long run.<\/p>\n

To Teach Is Human<\/h3>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just not that funny,\u201d is a common reason for not creating their own humorous explanations. For most of my teaching career, this was my view, as well. Over the past several years, however, I have come to realize that, with enough time and motivation, any teacher can take a given topic and explain it more engagingly through humor. This realization has been empowering. At a time when education, like many other sectors, is increasingly disrupted by technology, here is a method for adding another uniquely human touch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Engaging Students Through Humor\u2014and a Little Absurdity\u2014Makes Complex Topics Stick (Full Article here, excerpt below) Over the last several years, I\u2019ve been collaborating with comedian Sammy Obeid (known for hosting the\u00a0Netflix series\u00a0100 Humans). Through this collaboration, I have come to believe that any topic, however forbidding or unexciting it may seem, can be explained better […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","category-teaching"],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Kathryn Byrnes","author_link":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/baldwin-clt-teaching-times\/author\/kbyrnes\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/baldwin-clt-teaching-times\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/baldwin-clt-teaching-times\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/baldwin-clt-teaching-times\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/baldwin-clt-teaching-times\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/104"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/baldwin-clt-teaching-times\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/baldwin-clt-teaching-times\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/baldwin-clt-teaching-times\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/baldwin-clt-teaching-times\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/baldwin-clt-teaching-times\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}