Laugh and Learn: Humor as a Teaching Strategy in Occupational Therapy Education

SUMMARY

Humor use in education has been studied in fields such as psychology and nursing. Research has demonstrated that effective educational humor needs to be integrated into the topic and used in moderation. Used appropriately, humor can gain attention, facilitate creative thinking and memory, motivate students to attend class, and promote learning outcomes. No studies were located in the occupational therapy literature that specifically related to humor as an aspect of teaching. The purpose of this article is to explore the merits of humor as an educational tool and to give examples of ways that occupational therapy faculty and clinical instructors can employ humor.

KEYWORDS:

• Educational humor
• teacher immediacy
• motivation