Research Translation 2

The Potency of Humor and Instructional Self-Efficacy on Art Teacher Stress

Evans-Palmer, Teri. "The Potency Of Humor And Instructional Self-Efficacy On Art Teacher Stress." Studies In Art Education: A Journal Of Issues And Research In Art Education 52.1 (2010): 69-83. ERIC. Web. 7 June 2012.

Research Problem: The unique types of stress that comes with the job of being an art educator can cause that instructor to lose heart and their teaching practices will be affected.

Literature Review: This research was well organized. It talked about the medical health benefits of humor and laughing. It related that to the use of humor to engage students and give the instructor self-efficacy within the job setting. Humor defuses, encourages, reduces anxiety, heightens creativity and promotes higher order thinking skills.

Research Questions or Hypotheses: To be an effective teacher you must loose the stress with a humor copeing method. Humor has a social, emotional and cognitive effect on the teacher and classroom.

Data Sources: 354 public school K-12 art teachers were surveyed on a scale measuring their sense of humor, self-efficacy beliefs and stress levels.

Measurement Tools: The procedure for this study was conducted with a packet survey. They answered questions with a scale measurement tool. Demographic data was also collected and assessed as part of this study.

Results: This study found that a positive humor and effective instruction was used together it helped the art instructor with age, gender and experience within the classroom. Also, that the art instructor’s self-efficacy went down as stress excelled.  The strongest positive relationship was determined to be with social humor and instructional efficacy.

Discussion: Would teaching the use of humor in a classroom, during university studies of an instructor, help with stress levels? Would talking about using humor in a classroom actually help with someone’s sense of humor? Can you teach a sense of humor? Does humor help with everyone? How can you measure humor’s affect on the emotional state of both teacher and student?