In a survey of over twenty thousand high school students in Atlantic Canada, the final item invited respondents to outline aspects of their experience in school that were of concern to them. The students' observations in response to this open item covered a great diversity of topics, one of these being school humour (Martin and Baksh, 1995). Almost nine hundred students wrote about some aspect of school humour. The present paper deals with students' perceptions regarding a particular dimension of school humour - joking in the classroom.

Based on the formal organization of the classroom, there are two general types of joking relationship: one between teacher and student and the other among student themselves. Focusing on joking in teacher-student interaction, students have highlighted the extent to which the humour is reciprocal. Also, they have observed that they use humour to break the monotony that sometimes characterizes teacher-student interaction. The negative consequences of teacher-initiated humour are also of major concern to some students, as is the proliferation of boring jokes on the part of some teachers.

There is a widely held view among high school students in each of the four Atlantic provinces that students should have more respect for their teachers than is often the case, and teachers should reciprocate with respect for their students. Earlier published comments on the helpful, co-operative and understanding nature of teacher-initiated relationships with their students in Newfoundland and Labrador schools illustrate the positive meanings which students give to such relationships (Martin, 1983). Similar observations were made by students in other Atlantic Canada schools (Martin and Baksh, 1995: 71-72).

Focusing more specifically on student references to reciprocity in the joking relationships in teacher-student interactions, a Grade 11 girl in Newfoundland and Labrador wrote: "I appreciate it when teachers can joke with students and take a joke as well." Similarly, a Grade 10 boy in another Newfoundland and Labrador school evaluated his teachers as "all right" because "you can joke around with them".

The positive orientation which a Grade 10 boy in New Brunswick has toward one of his teacher who "can take a joke" is contrasted with his view of another of his teachers:

A similar view was echoed by the Grade 9 Newfoundland boy who named one teacher who "don't mind a joke every now and then" while "all the other teachers would hang you" for attempting to joke with them.

Other students expressed their view that some teachers do not reciprocate student attempts to pursue humour related actions in student-teacher interactions:

As noted by a Grade 11 girl in Newfoundland and Labrador, students should keep their "side of the bargain" if they want to "laugh and have a good time" on occasions in the school.

Very likely there are a number of issues relating to the reciprocity in the joking relationship among students themselves. One such issue is raised in the comments of a Grade 11 New Brunswick girl, who draws attention to the unfairness that might arise when students do not engage in reciprocity:

An earlier analysis of comments of high school students in Atlantic Canada identified the monotony of teacher strategies to include "dullness", "passivity", "abundance of teacher talk", "spoonfeeding" and requirements regarding memorization (Baksh and Martin, 1986: 117-123). As a response to this monotony, it is not uncommon to find students suggesting the need for variety in teaching strategies which would include new and challenging activities (Baksh and Martin, 1986: 123-130). Among the teaching strategies suggested by students is the need for teachers to inject humour into the teaching to break the monotony of classroom life.

The injection of humour into classroom interaction is thought likely to produce a variety of benefits. If teachers were "to get a little humour into the air", in the words of a Grade 9 New Brunswick boy, it would enable them "to put themselves down" to the students' level, thus facilitating an improved relationship with their students. On the whole, a teacher's inclination to introduce humour seems likely to generate a positive student attitude toward him/her. A Grade 9 boy in Prince Edward Island, for example, claims to "like a teacher who can have a good laugh once in a while with the class" and "does not always stick to work all the time", while a Grade 9 boy from that province admits to liking teachers who "joke around" a bit.

The use of humour by teachers is viewed as having other potential benefits. It might help to stimulate or maintain student interest in the lesson:

It might help make learning seem like fun:

It might enhance student-teacher relationships:

It might contribute to student enjoyment of what is being taught, perhaps even inducing a liking for the subject:

It might also make learning an easier task:

Students identified several negative consequences of different varieties of classroom humour, including students' "joking around", teachers' "making fun of students", students' "making fun of" each other, and teachers' "laughing at" students. The substantive issues noted in students' comments are (1) the waste of time associated with joking around and (2) student hesitancy to become more actively involved in classroom situations because they fear being the butt of teacher and student jokes.

According to a relatively small number of students, what should be valuable teaching-learning time is sometimes wasted by teachers who are "always telling stories" and "jokes". A larger number of students claimed that teaching-learning time was lost because of student antics. While the students who initiated such behaviours may have thought it to be "funny", others had a different meaning for it. In addition to interfering with their own learning such behaviours are often seen to be disruptive to the overall teaching and learning processes in the school.

While the claim of one Grade 11 girl in Newfoundland and Labrador that teachers "often stray" from the subject "to talk about trivial things" reflects the views of many students in other provinces, only a few students specifically complained that teachers wasted time by telling jokes and pursuing other humour related actions. One Grade 9 boy in Newfoundland claimed that "there are some teachers who... only come in class... to have a laugh and to tell jokes". Another Grade 9 boy in this province linked excessive teacher humour with "slackness" and a wastage of class time; he described as "slack" a "couple of teachers" in his school "which jokes around in class too much and never gives you any notes". A third Grade 9 Newfoundland boy expressed his liking for "teachers who talk openly and joke now and then" and his distaste for "a teacher who tells jokes and makes fun all the time". In a similar vein, a girl, in the same grade and school, expressed the view that while some teachers "are always joking" other teachers "say there is a time for joking and a time for" being serious with students. A Grade 9 girl in another Newfoundland and Labrador school expressed the view that even though "school is a place where people come to learn", some students "just come for a joke", thereby wasting their own time as well as that of others.

Comments from students in provinces other than Newfoundland and Labrador also suggest that time is sometimes wasted by teachers who tell stories and jokes.

A Grade 10 Nova Scotia girl associates an excessive use of humour with immaturity and warns that "teachers should act mature and not joke around all the time".

A widespread complaint among high school students in each of the four Atlantic provinces is that there are students who disrupt the teaching-learning processes in the school. While some of their negatively oriented behaviours are not intended to be humorous, some of their actions are initiated in jest. After complaining that there is too much homework and not as many school buses as there "should be" and noting the need for more lockers in the school, a Grade 11 girl in Prince Edward Island wrote: "Another thing is when you are trying to do work in class and people are laughing at us."

It has been observed that some students "just come to school to have a good time" (Grade 9 girl, Newfoundland and Labrador), and consequently interfere with others who are more serious about getting an education. A Grade 12 girl in New Brunswick claimed that she failed Grade 9 because she "joked around and had a good time". In addition to interfering with the academic efforts of others, students who are always trying to be funny sometimes "get others in trouble". Several other students complained about their peers who became trouble makers with actions that involve one or another dimension of humour. While blaming students for the disciplinary problems that were related to actions with a humorous intent, a Grade 10 boy in New Brunswick reported that "some of the teachers can't handle" the class she is in and "classroom is like a jungle" where everyone is doing exactly what he/she wants to do. According to a number of students those who disrupt the class, "thinking they are funny", should be kicked out the school. Other students suggested that all the time in school should not be spent laughing.

The indications are that student gender may be a factor in situations where students' attempt at humour result in disruptive behaviour. For example, girls from one or more schools in each of the four provinces accused boys of creating discipline problems in the school. Without reference to disciplinary problems as such, a Grade 9 girl in Newfoundland and Labrador said that some of the boys "think they are real duds in school but they are so stupid it's not even funny".

As seen from the student perspective, problems with student clowning are not confined to the school environment. For example, after writing about the noise, the teasing, the action of "clowns" on the school bus, a Grade 10 girl in Nova Scotia questioned why other students should "suffer because of a bunch of clowns who can't behave properly".

Although not a widespread feeling among the high school students participating in the present research, comments were made to the effect that students have been hesitant in taking a more active role in certain classroom situations because they were afraid that the teacher would "make fun of them". Students' concerns about teachers' actions which have been known to result in student embarrassment have been illustrated in an earlier book on Student Embarrassment which is based on the schooling experiences of students in Newfoundland and Labrador (Martin, 1985). Focusing specifically on student hesitancy which is said to have been a result of teachers' laughing at them, it may be noted that this cause and effect situation was not identified by any of the males in the present study. While by no means conclusive evidence of a gender difference in perception, it is interesting that all the observations regarding this particular effect of teachers' making fun of students come from female students. For example, a Grade 9 girl echoed the view of at least two other girls in her Grade in one Newfoundland school when she claimed: "Some teachers laugh at me if I try to express my feelings or try to prove a point." To further elaborate on this point of view, here are comments from Grade 12 students in one Nova Scotia school:

Another Grade 12 Nova Scotia girl expressed her view on the consequences of having teachers who "laugh at" students when she wrote:

Students from a number of schools observed that teachers are not always successful in their "telling jokes" with the intention of adding humour to the classroom. On the contrary, their jokes are often perceived by the students to be "stupid" and tend not to get the teachers' desired effect. For example, a Grade 9 boy in one Newfoundland school wrote: "Some teachers tell the driest and the more boring jokes, so many times it makes you sick," while a Grade 11 girl in another Newfoundland and Labrador school complained that her "teachers tell boring jokes" which are "dry and uninteresting". A New Brunswick boy in Grade 10 blamed his teachers, who allegedly "act as if they are dried up" with their "teaching and jokes" for school, for being "boring sometimes". Here are the comments of three students from one Newfoundland and Labrador school: "...teaches us History and makes it very boring. He also tells the horrible dry jokes" (Grade 9 boy); "The History teacher is dumb. He gets in front of the class telling dry jokes and insulting students" (Grade 9 boy); "Most teachers are boring, they tell dry jokes and you can't understand the teacher at all" (Grade 10 girl).

A Grade 10 boy in New Brunswick argued that a teacher cannot make class "interesting" with "boring jokes". A Grade 10 girl in Nova Scotia wrote:

The subject of the stupid jokes of one of his teachers was identified by one Newfoundland boy in Grade 9 as "religion". The student wrote that his teacher "is ignorant" and "tells religious jokes". A Grade 10 girl in New Brunswick was upset because "there are also teachers in" her "school who talk and joke more about what they did the night before than they do about the subject." Another Grade 10 girl in a second New Brunswick school noted that her "teachers are mostly boring because" she "cannot understand their stupid jokes". In the view of one Grade 10 boy in New Brunswick, one of his male teachers tells "dirty boring jokes" which are not appreciated by his classes.

The suggestion was made by one Prince Edward Island student that teachers who "try to be funny" by telling jokes are not usually successful in getting "laughs from many students". In contrast to this view, a Grade 9 girl in New Brunswick observed that all teachers do have, and need to have, a sense of humour. But, what really bothers her are those "teachers with no sense of humour... who think they're funny when really they are pathetic". Similarly, the pitfalls in teacher exploitation of humour as a classroom technique were suggested by a Grade 9 boy from New Brunswick who pointed to the futility of teachers' trying "to be funny" when they are unable to be truly amusing, a situation that usually results in their making "stupid jokes" and thus earning their students' contempt.

High school students in this survey noted their desire for reciprocity of humour in teacher-student interaction. Different students report that classroom humour could help stimulate and maintain student interest in a lesson. Such humour may help make learning fun and induce a liking for the subject at hand. In addition, classroom humour has been seen as an effective way to enhance student-teaching relationships. On the other hand, high school students note that inappropriate use of humour can be a waste of teachers' and students' time. Also, from the student perspective, teachers would be well advised to be sensitive to the student view before telling "stupid jokes".

Baksh, Ishmael J. and Wilfred B.W. Martin. Teacher Expectation: The Student Perspective. St. John's: Faculty of Education, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

Martin, Wilfred B.W. (1983). Helpful, Understanding and Co-operative Teachers. St. John's: Faculty of Education, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

Martin, Wilfred B.W. (1985). Student Embarrassment. St. John's: Faculty of Education, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

Martin, Wilfred B.W. and Ishmael J. Baksh (1995). School Humour: Pedagogical and Sociological Considerations. St. John's: Faculty of Education, Memorial University of Newfoundland.