VortragPeer ReviewEnglisch
Interplay of teacher humour and classroom climate at school
Banaruee, H. & Bieg, S. (2025). Interplay of teacher humour and classroom climate at school. Jena, Fachtagung Pädagogische Psychologie, PAEPS.
Abstract
Among other things, humor in the classroom fulfills social functions that go hand in hand with a pleasant atmosphere, which in turn can promote the use of humor (Van Praag, et al., 2017). However, prior research in this domain are predominantly cross-sectional (e.g., Tsukawaki et al., 2020), leaving the reciprocal and causal relationships between different types of teacher humor and classroom climate unexplored. Based on prior research studies (Stuart & Rosenfeld, 1994; Tsukawaki et al., 2020), we hypothesize that affiliative types of humor and classroom climate will mutually and positively reinforce one another over time, while aggressive humor and classroom climate will exert reciprocal negative effects. Hence, we conducted a longitudinal study exploring these reciprocal relations. We followed 1,298 German-speaking 9th-grade students (51.9 % female; Mage: 14.30 years; SD = .52) from 62 secondary school classes (Gymnasium) during the school years 2023-2024. Students’ perceptions of teacher humor were measured with HUMLAS (Bieg & Dresel, 2016, 17 items, ω = .85 -.94), and classroom climate was assessed with a scale from Helmke (2017, 3 items, ω = .80). Data were collected at three measurement points. The reciprocal associations of different teacher humor types and classroom climate were analyzed by identifying crossed-lagged panel models with latent variables (using Mplus 8.11), which all models yielded satisfying fit indices. The results indicated partially reciprocal relationships. Specifically, course-related humor at the start of the school year (T1) positively predicted classroom climate at mid-year (T2); further, classroom climate at T2 predicted enhanced course-related humor at the end of the school year (T3). We found a negative reciprocal relationship between aggressive humor and classroom climate from T1 to T2. We also found that the classroom climate at T2 predicted aggressive humor at T3 negatively. Furthermore, irrelevant humor at T2 negatively influenced classroom climate at T3. There were no effects between self-disparaging humor and classroom climate. These findings emphasize that only the use of teacher’s course-related humor is perceived as supportive classroom climate and teachers should avoid aggressive humor in the classroom. Course-related humor can make the classroom feel enjoyable, promoting a positive classroom climate. Mutually, a supportive classroom climate encourages teachers to use more course-related humor in their lessons.
Keywords: Teacher humor, Classroom climate, Secondary school students
Anschrift:
hassan.banaruee[at]ph-weingarten.de
https://sites.google.com/view/hassan-banaruee/home
