It's easy to make fun of Ronald A. Berk. And, to be
fair, anyone who wears oversized cowboy hats and has more than one inflatable
alien doll in his office should be prepared for some ridicule.
So go
ahead, laugh at him. Really. It's OK. He wants you to.
After all,
everyone else does, including his students. The 56-year-old professor of
biostatistics and measurement at the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing
has become well-known for his wacky classroom stunts, one of which involves a
touching duet between Céline Dion and a leaf blower.
In person, Mr. Berk
always has a joke at hand. Although many of them are groaners, he seems to be
having such a good time that it is hard not to get caught up in his enthusiasm.
But beneath the nonsense is a simple and slightly subversive message: If
you're funny, they will learn.
The professor has written two books in
support of that theory: Professors Are From Mars, Students Are From
Snickers and the recently published Humor as an Instructional
Defibrillator. He has made presentations to packed rooms of professors
across the country, maintaining that humor not only reduces anxiety and fosters
better relationships between students and teachers but also helps make difficult
concepts clearer and more memorable.
Indeed, Mr. Berk has become higher
education's humor guru, a title for which, admittedly, there wasn't much
competition. Along the way, he has racked up a shelf full of teaching awards, a
cadre of wisecracking disciples, and stacks of gushing student evaluations.
"He's more than funny," says Sherri Wheeler, a senior majoring in
nursing. "He knows how to take a subject and truly bring it to
life."
Most professors use some form of humor in their courses, tossing
in the occasional wry one-liner or witty aside. What Mr. Berk advocates is
employing humor as a systematic teaching tool that, he says, can "shock students
to attention and bring deadly, boring course content to life." It can also,
according to the professor, create an "atmosphere of play and creativity" that
encourages exploration.
That's not to say that everyone agrees that
humor, particularly the over-the-top variety, is the right approach. "Some
students seem to like it, but there are others who find it annoying and
distracting and unnecessary," says Martha N. Hill, dean of the nursing school.
Still, Mr. Berk and teaching experts like Jim Eison remain convinced of
humor's pedagogical value. "Instructors don't necessarily have to be
entertainers, but humor is one way to make material more compelling and engage
students in the learning experience," says Mr. Eison, a professor of higher
education at the University of South Florida.
The Scarf and the Leaf
Blower
It started innocently enough. Then it got out of
hand.
Ever since Mr. Berk began teaching in the nursing school, some 17
years ago, he has made sure to add a few jokey examples to his lectures. Not
comedic gold exactly, just a play on words or a pop-culture reference or two.
The students seemed to pay closer attention. "They were smiling and
laughing," he says. "No one would believe we were talking about multiple
regression."
Soon he had gone beyond funny test questions and was
devising elaborate musical skits to illustrate certain principles, often
enlisting the help of his students. In one, several students danced into the
room to music from Chicago, followed by another group wearing hooded
sweatshirts and punching the air to the theme from Rocky. They were meant
to illustrate the concept of statistical sampling. (The class discussed how
certain students were selected for the two groups and in what ways those groups
were similar or different.)
In another stunt, he had a student stand at
the front of the room with her arms out straight, so her body was in the shape
of a "T," to represent a statistical concept called "T score." To make the
demonstration more memorable, he had her hold a scarf in her hand while another
student turned on a leaf blower and he played the Céline Dion tear-jerker "My
Heart Will Go On" from the movie Titanic. (For the two of you who didn't
see the movie, this is a play on one of its most famous scenes.)
"They
loved it," the professor says. "The room exploded."
Not only did they
love it, but such antics have helped students remember the material better, the
professor contends. Attendance improved and test scores rose, he says. "The
response reinforced my idea of using humor as a teaching tool," adds Mr. Berk,
who received his Ph.D. from the University of Maryland at College Park in
education.
Along the way, Mr. Berk developed some rules about the right
and wrong kinds of humor to use in a classroom. For instance, he found that
self-deprecating humor puts students at ease and leads to more interaction.
Sarcasm, however, can poison a classroom and turn students off.
Barry
Margulies learned that the hard way. The assistant professor of biology at
Towson University says his own sense of humor tends to be a bit acerbic. He
didn't think that was a problem until he started receiving evaluations from
students with comments like "inappropriate humor" and "sarcastic."
So he
asked Mr. Berk, whom he heard speak at a teaching conference, for help. Mr. Berk
encouraged him to eliminate the sarcasm -- which might be misinterpreted as
a put-down -- and replace it with less biting goofiness. It seems to have
worked: Mr. Margulies's last batch of student evaluations was much more
positive, he says. And Mr. Berk's humor techniques have been a hit with Mr.
Margulies's students. "If they can remember me acting like an idiot, maybe that
will trigger a memory that will allow them to solve a problem or answer a
question," he says. "Sometimes the most hilarious or off-the-wall presentations
make the biggest impressions."
But is it acceptable for a professor to
act like an idiot? Mr. Berk argues that it is, so long as doing so helps
students learn. But not everyone agrees. "There are people who think that it's
frivolous, it's undignified," he says. "They don't understand that it's not the
humor by itself, but it's the humor linked to certain concepts that I want
students to remember. It's about active learning."
Screwy
Syllabus
Mr. Berk's philosophy is also linked to current research
about humor, which shows that laughter can reduce stress and improve mental
functioning. But that connection, he says, is lost on colleagues who think of
him as the guy who wears silly hats. He has even run into opposition from his
own department.
One of those battles was over his use of humor in his
syllabus. Quips such as "A Third Less Content, Same Great Taste!" sprinkled
throughout the list of requirements and assignments were viewed by the nursing
school as inappropriate for official university material. But putting small
jokes and non sequiturs in official university material is what Mr. Berk is all
about. Indeed, he encourages other professors to follow his lead and make their
syllabuses as funny as possible. Being told that he would have to distribute a
serious syllabus to his students was not something he took lightly.
He
called the American Association of University Professors, which put him in touch
with a lawyer. After much discussion, a compromise was reached: Mr. Berk would
be allowed to distribute his original, funny syllabus to students so long as he
provided a joke-free version to the department for its records. The professor
happily complied.
While some colleagues remain skeptical, others, like
Diane S. Aschenbrenner, an instructor in pharmacology, are big supporters. "He's
a very effective, engaging teacher," she says. "I don't think people quite
recognize the scholarship and learning theory that is behind what he does in the
classroom." Ms. Aschenbrenner says that even though she is low key and serious
by nature, she has used several of Mr. Berk's skits in her classes and has been
pleased by the results.
That's why she was particularly upset when it was
recently announced that Mr. Berk would no longer be assistant dean for teaching
in the School of Nursing, though he will remain a professor. The official reason
for the change is not Mr. Berk's performance in the role, but rather that the
department is being reorganized under Ms. Hill, who was named dean last year.
Some in the department, however, suspect that Mr. Berk's humorous
approach is not taken seriously by the new administration. "I think it's
unfortunate not to have him in that position anymore," says Ms. Aschenbrenner.
"I think he has helped a lot of other professors here with their
teaching."
Whether what Mr. Berk does really helps students learn is a
matter of debate, according to Ms. Hill. "I'm very interested in how we improve
teaching excellence and increase competency-based learning," she says. "The
question is, What are the effective techniques? I don't have any data that allow
me to say what he does is effective."
She asserts that student
evaluations reveal that not everyone is amused by Mr. Berk's technique. "The
reviews are mixed," she says.
Mr. Berk disputes that and says
evaluations from students have been almost uniformly stellar. "She doesn't have
a clue about what goes on in my classroom," he says. "I don't think I've really
had any negative reviews in two years." Mary Kathleen Lears, a nursing
instructor who is also a member of a committee that examines students'
evaluations, confirms that Mr. Berk's evaluations have been "superb" and among
the highest in the department.
The professor says he has grown accustomed
to negative reactions from colleagues. "The rest of the faculty dismiss or
simply tolerate you," he says "People don't know why you do what you do, and
they don't care." He adds that there is "hardly anyone else doing anything at
the college level with humor as a teaching technique."
While they may be
in the minority, there certainly are other professors who have found
unconventional ways to help students learn. Among them is Muffy Siegel, a
professor of English at Temple University, who also happens to be a
ventriloquist. In her linguistics classes, she uses a puppet she's named Gregory
the Grackle to explain the difference between human and animal communication,
among other concepts. Ms. Siegel says students are disappointed on days when she
doesn't make use of the talking bird.
"Sometimes it's hard to fit him
in, but students demand it, and so I have to find a way," she says. "They say
they look forward to coming to class -- and that's a good
thing."
Ms. Siegel doesn't see her ventriloquism as a gimmick. "There's
no better way to teach the course," she says. "There's no question to me that
it's an effective teaching tool."
Anthony Clark Arend agrees that humor
in the classroom can be effective. The professor of government at Georgetown
University says including "colorful examples" is an integral part of the way he
teaches. "In the hypotheticals, I'll talk about Snoop Doggy Dogg or Britney
Spears," he says. "I try to keep it current.
Hopefully, by hearing
something unconventional, students will participate more and perhaps enjoy what
they're doing."
That said, Mr. Arend also believes humor shouldn't
interfere with the lesson. "You need to use humor in such a way that it advances
the substantive matter you're discussing," he says. "You never want to do it
where it becomes paramount and the material becomes secondary."
What he
does seems to work for students. He has won 10 teaching awards in his career,
including three in the past year.
"He's hysterical," says Justin Wagner,
a senior majoring in government and economics. "He personifies a professor who
is able to incorporate humor and do it appropriately."
But just because
the professor is funny doesn't mean his course is a cakewalk. Mr. Wagner says
Mr. Arend's class is definitely challenging. Ms. Siegel says students feel they
same way about her courses. "They uniformly say that the classes are funny, and
they're hard," she says.
Milton M. Reigelman is known for being a tough
teacher, too. But the English professor at Centre College is also known for
using humor, and the occasional planned stunt, to grab students' attention. His
favorite such event was the time he invited Ed McClanahan, author of the novel
The Natural Man, to visit his class. The professor didn't tell the
students that the author of the novel they were reading would be making an
appearance. That would have ruined the gag.
The class was held outside,
and halfway through the lecture Mr. McClanahan wandered up and began arguing
with the professor over his interpretation of the book. The argument became
increasingly more intense, until it looked as if the two men might come to
blows. At that point, Mr. McClanahan revealed himself.
"You ask people
who have graduated 20 years before what they remember, and it's stuff like
that," Mr. Reigelman says. "You have to be a showman at some level. I think
humor is absolutely fundamental to teaching."
Class for
Clowns
If humor is fundamental to teaching, is it possible to teach
professors to be funny?
Mr. Berk thinks so. While he doesn't guarantee
that students will be rolling in the aisles, he does say that his "low risk"
brand of humor can enliven any classroom. "It's not dependent on your ability to
tell a joke," he says. "It's using humor in a very different way. Using music or
putting jokes in your syllabus -- it's a no-brainer. Anybody can do
this."
Bob McMorris, a professor of educational psychology and
methodology at the State University of New York at Albany has tried some of Mr.
Berk's techniques and says they're as good as advertised. "My outlook on humor
has been colored a lot by Ron," he says. "He makes it accessible and gives
people things they can use."
Ms. Lears has seen some of the techniques
work in her classroom, too. She says she devised a skit to demonstrate how and
how not to communicate with patients based on Mr. Berk's strategies. It
was a smash, she says. "He has helped people here who you never would have
thought would use humor in their classes," she adds.
She hopes Mr. Berk's
methods will catch on. "If we can just get the rest of academia to understand
that this is proven stuff, it works," she says. "It's OK to let your guard down
and try something humorous."
SILLY
SCHTICKS
Ronald A. Berk believes that being wacky in the
classroom gets students' attention and helps them retain what they learn. Here
are two of the humorous openings that he suggests could be used to kick off a
lecture. They are from his book, Humor as an Instructional
Defibrillator:
Stat Trek
a. Music: Theme from
Star Trek
b. Time: 45 seconds
c. Props: Spock ears
(optional), miniflashlight
d. Preparation: Conceal ears in pocket or
under something near projector
e. Transparency: "Stat Trek: Where No
Statistician Has Gone Before"
f. Script:
Statistics
The
final frontier
These are the voyages of the Stat Trek
Its 15-week
mission: