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.