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 当前，幽默的认可度与喜爱程度与日俱增，因为我们已然认识到，在医疗、商务与娱乐等多元场景中，幽默对个体福祉有着积极贡献。那么在教育领域，尤其是数学教学中，情况又如何呢？为解答这一问题，我们开展了此项定量研究，研究样本涵盖1088名伊比利亚半岛数学教师（葡萄牙与西班牙籍），其授课学段覆盖从基础教育初期至高等教育的全阶段。本研究借助问卷调研，旨在探究全学段数学教师（涵盖葡萄牙与西班牙籍）是否认可幽默、对幽默及其教育价值持有何种看法，以及是否在学科教学中运用幽默。本研究同时试图明确，教师所执教的数学教学学段，是否会影响其对教学用幽默的认知与使用行为。此外，本研究还探究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。研究结果显示，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，且曾在课堂上观察到他人使用幽默或亲身使用过幽默，其目的在于营造良好的学习氛围并引导学生思考。研究还揭示了不同教学学段教师间的差异：相较于其他学段，基础教育初期的教师在数学教学中更倾向于认同并使用幽默。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题项上的平均认同度更高。