Student Opinions of Humor in Educational Communication

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the opinions of primary school and high school students regarding the role of humor as a practice in the management of educational communication on the part of the teacher. More specifically, it is investigated whether and to what extent humor affects the students' behavior towards the teacher, the educational process as well as their personality. First, a theoretical approach to the subject is made, in order to highlight the idea that teacher-student pedagogical communication is considered to be the most lively and dynamic part of the educational process, because through it all the messages that signal action, attitude and, in general, teacher's behavior is conveyed. This means that the form of communication chosen by the teacher, either consciously or unconsciously, affects not only his relationship with the student, but also the content and the result of the educational processes. In this case, we have chosen humor as a pedagogical communication practice, given that the research data identify it as an important, effective means between the teacher and the students, the effect of which is particularly beneficial for the educational process, the classroom climate and the relationship between the teacher and the students as well as for the student himself. To implement the purpose of the research, a questionnaire with closed-ended questions was created, which was distributed to primary school and high school students in the first ten days of May 2023 in the city of Ioannina. The findings of the research are considered particularly interesting confirming the majority of the theoretical data that preceded it. The paper ends with conclusions and final remarks.