Perspectives of Mathematics Teachers about Humour and its Educational Value

Abstract At present, humour has an increasing acceptance and appreciation, because we recognize the positive contributions to the well-being of people in contexts as diverse as health, business, and entertainment. What happens in Education and, in particular, in Mathematics teaching? To answer this question, we designed this quantitative study with a sample of 1088 Iberian mathematics teachers (Portuguese and Spanish), that teach from the early years through to higher education. Through the use of a questionnaire, we seek to find out if Portuguese and Spanish teachers who teach Mathematics, throughout the various levels of education, appreciate humor, what perspective they have of it and its educational value, and if they use it in teaching the discipline. The study also sought to determine if the teaching level in which teachers teach mathematics has an influence on the perception and use of humor for instructional purposes. The study also investigates if there are any significant differences between Portuguese and Spanish teachers in relation to these aspects. The results show that the overwhelming majority of teachers, at all levels of teaching, recognize the meaning of humor, consider that they have a sense of humor, justify its use in mathematics teaching and have already seen it being used or used it in their classes, with the goal of creating a good learning environment and making students think. The study reveals differences among teachers at different levels of teaching, indicating that there is a greater predisposition of teachers in the initial years, in comparison to other years, to value and use humor in mathematics teaching. The study also reveals differences between Portuguese and Spanish teachers, with Portuguese presenting a higher average agreement in most items.

摘要：当下，幽默的受众接受度与认可度持续攀升，这是由于我们已然明晰，在医疗、商业、娱乐等多元场景中，幽默对民众的福祉具有积极助推作用。那么教育领域，尤其是数学教学领域的现状又当如何？为解答这一问题，我们开展了此项定量研究，调研样本涵盖1088名伊比利亚半岛数学教师（含葡萄牙与西班牙籍），其授课学段覆盖基础教育早期至高等教育全周期。本研究通过问卷调研，旨在探明全学段数学教师对幽默的态度、对幽默及其教育价值的认知，以及他们是否在学科教学中运用幽默。本研究同时旨在探究，教师的授课学段是否会影响其对幽默的教学认知与应用行为。此外，本研究还考察了葡萄牙与西班牙籍教师在上述各维度是否存在显著差异。研究结果表明，全学段绝大多数教师均认可幽默的价值，自认具备幽默感，认同在数学教学中使用幽默的合理性，且要么曾在课堂中目睹幽默的应用，要么自身便在课堂中运用幽默，其目的在于营造良好的学习氛围并引导学生主动思考。本研究还揭示了不同学段教师间的差异：相较于其他学段的教师，基础教育早期学段的教师在数学教学中更倾向于重视并运用幽默。此外，研究还发现葡萄牙与西班牙籍教师间存在差异：葡萄牙籍教师在多数调研条目上的平均认同度更高。