Laughter in Class: Humorous Memes in 21st Century Learning

Humorous memes are trending phenomena that the students are very much aware of. With the advent of e-technology teachers are fast exploiting this trend to spice up their lectures. The humorous memes and technology therefore are two important component of this study. The study made use of psychological phenomenology that aimed at describing the lived experiences of the teachers in using humorous memes in the 21st century class of learners and how they face the challenges of using humorous memes in their classes. Based from the findings of the study, the teachers’ lived experiences emerge. Theme 1 zeroed in on teachers’ edge in determining the students’ readiness to learn. Theme 2 focused on the realization of the 21st century class learning environment. Theme 3 highlighted the reduction of anxiety and stress for both teachers and students alike. There are two themes prevailed as to how the teachers faced the challenges brought about of using humorous memes in their class. Theme 4 looked into the innovation and commission that teachers undertake that is making their own humorous memes and soliciting others to help coming up with humorous memes. Theme 5 underscored the observation and reaction of both the teacher and students with the set-up and each other. Observation that enables both of them to see what is relevant in the class and their subsequent reaction to what is relevant for both of them.


Introduction
Classroom activity can be stressful as it is and teacher put up a lot in order to make learning happened in spite of this.According to Stebbings (1980), in classroom, any form of humor, whether introduced by the teacher or the pupil, could potentially provide social comic relief.Humor appropriately used has the potential to humanize, illustrate, defuse, encourage, reduce anxiety, and keep people thinking (Torok, McMorris, & Lin, 2010).Humor can create a positive learning environment, reduce the stress of both teachers and students, improve communication between students and the teacher, and can increase the amount of information absorbed by students (Friedman, Friedman &Amoo, 2002).Research has revealed that humor plays a significant role in building a harmonious relationship between teachers and students (Ashipaoloye, 2013).Garner (2005) argues for the use of humor as a pedagogical tool that enhances learning and creates a more positive classroom atmosphere.Analogy and metaphor improve understanding and retention of material.Humor as a pedagogical tool can be like walking on a tightrope.If done well, it could enhance learning or at the very least make learning more fun (Poirer & Wilhelm, 2014).
The study of Rosegard and Wilson (2013) provided empirical support that implementing a hook, trigger, attention getter/grabber, and/or anticipatory set enhances learning and memory through increasing arousal (decreasing boredom) and focusing attention.Research suggests that humor produces psychological and physiological benefits that help students learn (Stambor, 2006).Research also establishes that humor helps individuals cope with stress as it relaxes them (Weimer, 2011).
According to authors Lei, Cohen and Russler (21010), the most effective instructors are those who engage their students in creative and interesting ways.One way to engage students is to incorporate humor into the college classroom.Humor has psychological, social, and cognitive (educational) benefits.Humor has the power to make instructors more likable, approachable, facilitate comprehension, increase attentiveness, improve creativity, and promote social relationships.Humor is an appreciated teaching tool for instructors to facilitate student learning if using it appropriately, constructively, and in moderation.
Researchers have identified that educators who use humor in their instruction are more positively rated by their peers and their students; others have suggested that humor may enhance learning (Garner, 2012).The group studying with humor had higher scores on the final exam (Ziv, 2014).Curiously enough, studies indicated that high school teachers generally use less humor than college teachers, perceive college teacher humor as appropriate, and use humor as a learning facilitator rather than a learning strategy (Neulipa, published  Laughter in Class.... Henderson (2015), results showed that retention was strongest in the lectures with content-related humor, and that students reported more enjoyment in the experience.In the study made by Wanzer and Frymier (2009), results indicated that a high humor orientation (HO) was associated with increased student perceptions of learning.It was also found that high HO students reported learning more with a high HO teacher.In a similar study by Alkhattab (2012), suggest that using humor in nursing classrooms increases nursing students" information retention and increases their attention.

In the test and survey made by
These indicate that humor, provided it is not used to excess, can increase attention and interest and help to illustrate and reinforce what is being taught (Powell & Andresen, 2006).Consistent with IHPT, related humor, an appropriate form of instructional humor, was positively associated with student learning, while other-disparaging and offensive humor, inappropriate forms of humor, did not correlate with student learning (Wanzer, Frymier & Irwin, 2009).
Verbal humor such as wordplays, funny stories, puns, and content related jokes play an important role in L2 learners' development of sociolinguistic and sociocultural competence.It has been suggested that humor can serve as a formidable tool that can be used for sensitizing students to phonological, morphological, lexical, and syntactic differences within a single language or between a student's L1 and the target language (Deneire, 1995; as cited by Ziyaeemehr, Kumar and Abdullah, 2011).
The study of Gorham and Christophel (2009), investigated the teachers' use of humor in relationship to immediacy and learning.The amount and type of humor recorded by 206 students as observations of things teachers did to show "a sense of humor" were analyzed and correlated with overall immediacy and perceived cognitive and affective learning outcomes.The results indicated that amount and type of humor influenced learning, that students were particularly aware of tendentious humor, and that an overdependence on tendentious humor diminished affect.Humor and Technology Rosegard et.al, (2013), suggests introducing a lecture with external stimulus increases information retention.The external stimulus in the form of humor that is ingrained in technology such as e-learning tools maybe use.Technology plays one of an important aspect of everyday life.Computer laptop, notebook, ipad and cellphones are but some of the tools that are being used by students in their everyday activities such as communication, entertainment, purchasing and even selling and to include learning.
Humor can also pique students' interest outside the classroom.Shatz and LoSchiavo (2005), found that when a professor inserted self-deprecating jokes, psychology-related cartoons and top 10 lists in an online introductory psychology course, their students more often logged on to the online system Blackboard and were more likely to enjoy the class.

Technology and memes
An Internet meme is an activity, concept, catchphrase or piece of media which spreads, often as mimicry, from person to person via the Internet (Schubert, 2003).A meme is "an idea, behavior, or style that spreads from person to person within a culture" (Merriam-Websters, 2016).An Internet meme may take the form of an image, hyperlink, video, website, or hashtag.It may be just a word or phrase, including an intentional misspelling.These small movements tend to spread from person to person via social networks, blogs, direct e-mail, or news sources.They may relate to various existing internet cultures or subcultures, often created or spread on various websites, or by Usenet boards and other such early-internet communications facilities.Fads and sensations tend to grow rapidly on the Internet, because the instant communication facilitates word-of-mouth transmission (Wikipedia, 2016).
Technology is also an important component of the 21 st century learning environment.
The 21 st century learning environment incorporate six major objectives and these are: 1) Create learning practices, human support and physical environments that will support the teaching and learning of 21st century skill outcomes.2) Support professional learning communities that enable educators to collaborate, share best practices and integrate 21st century skills into classroom practice.3) Enable students to learn in relevant, real world 21st century contexts (e.g., through project-based or other applied work).4) Allow equitable access to quality learning tools, technologies and resources.5) Provide 21st century architectural and interior designs for group, team and individual learning.6) Support expanded community and international involvement in learning, both face-to-face and online (P21.org,2007).
Technology went a long way and this can be seen in a simple tool in classroom such as LCD projector which is being used for PowerPoint presentation.The use of PowerPoint as a tool in teaching virtually replaced the over-head projector (OHP) more so the white board and blackboard teaching.Teacher would be placing the topic in a format that is visually stimulating by adding designs and animations.Anecdotes, quotations, comic cartoons and memes are usually added by teachers for extra cognitive and sensory stimulation.These make the lessons interesting as it brings novelty, depth, and humor in a lesson.
PowerPoint, when effectively planned and used, can enhance instruction and it can be an effective tool to present material in the classroom and encourage student learning (Northern Illinois University, 2006).Alley, Schreiber, Ramsdell and Muffo (2006, p. 233) suggest that PowerPoint slide headlines design affects audience retention, and conclude that succinct sentence headlines are more effective in information recall than headlines of short phrases or single words.

Problems of establishing humor's value
Humor is understood to reduce anxiety and stress, build confidence, improve productivity, heighten interest, reduce boredom and encourage divergent thinking, yet it has been difficult to establish positive value for humor in helping student learning (Ziegler, 2009).Thus the present study explored the lived experiences of teachers in the use of humor in a class of 21 st century, particularly in the use of memes.

Methods
This design used in the study was Psychological Phenomenology which according to Moustakas (1994) as cited by Creswell (2007), focuses less on the interpretations of the researcher and more on the experiences of the subjects or participants.Specifically, the researcher utilized a phenomenological procedures which involved bracketing, a suspension of own experience, and collecting data from 5-25 individuals who have experienced the phenomenon (Polkinghorne, 1989 as cited by Creswell, 2007).In this study, the lived experience of teachers in using humorous memes and technology was the focus of the phenomena concern.The data were then analyzed by highlighting and reducing information into important statements which were then pooled into themes.A textural and a structural descriptions of the participants experiences were then developed, and finally proceeded with the combination of these descriptions to convey the essence of the study.

Participants of the Study
The participants of the study were five (5) teachers who are teaching various subjects in University of Perpetual Help System Laguna for the school year of 2015-2016.The respondents had been teaching for at least five (5) years.Purposeful Criterion Sampling strategy was used through which the researcher chose the participants and the locale as they could in all intent provide an understanding of the research problem from the phenomena concern and therefore could give quality assurance (Huberman & Miles, 1994) as cited by Creswell (2007).

Instrumentation and Validation
This study used in-depth interviews through interview schedule which determined the teachers' lived experiences regarding the challenges and of value of using humorous memes in the 21 st century class learning.The interview was composed of two (2) major questions with sub-questions undertow.The questions were none-directed as much as possible and the participants were allowed to express their experiences.The research tool was self-constructed and was shown to experts in the field of phenomenological research, administration and supervision area as well as guidance and counseling for validation.To establish research rigor, verification, validation and validity were applied (Meadows & Morse, 2001).The researcher achieved verification through in-depth literature readings, sticking to the phenomenological method of inquiry, suspending past experiences, keeping research notes and journals, utilizing a sufficient sample of participants (Polkinghorne, 1989 as cited by Creswell, 2007), and conducting multiple interviews, as well as clarifying the responses of the participants, until data were refined.Validation was reached through multiple data collection (observations, in-depth interviews), data analysis utilizing Moustakas' approach and coding by the more experienced phenomenological researcher.To attain validity, the researcher presented the study to competent researchers for external review to establish trustworthiness of research work.After describing the overall "essence" of the phenomenon under study, the researcher met again with the participants to verify the synthesis of their responses.This was the last step taken so that the participants themselves could clarify and rectify their responses so the validity of the essence was obtained thus establishing the study's credibility.
The researcher asked permission from the teachers if they could be interviewed and upon securing their permission, the researcher assured them of confidentiality.The researcher then recorded the transcript of the conversations envivo via paper and pen for analysis.

Data Analysis
The first step that the researcher went through is bracketing, here the researcher set aside all preconceived thoughts and experience he had to best understand the experience of teachers in facing the challenges in using memes and technology in their classes.The data gathered from the multiple interviews were processed through horizonalization by going through them via transcriptions and highlighting significant testimonials that provided an understanding of how the participants faced the challenges from their classes.Again, from the same, themes were derived to finally come up with a textural description of what the participants experienced.Also significant statements to write a description, called imaginative variation or structural description, of the context or setting that influenced how the participants experienced the phenomenon under study.From the structural and textural descriptions, the researcher documented the composite description that presents the "essence" called the overall essence or invariant structure of facing the problems of students' behavior today as experienced by teachers.This paper followed the phenomenological framework of Moustakas (1994) as expounded by Creswell (2007) because it has systematic steps in the data analysis and procedures and guidelines for constructing the textural and structural descriptions.
The study was based on the idea that humor, memes and technology when properly used or handled can produced positive impact on 21 st century class learning.The representation shows (Fig. 1) that these three entering a funnel and being filtered for its essence.The essence would be that of learning.

Fig. 1 The conceptual model
This study sought answers to the following problems: 1.
What is the lived experience of the participants in using humorous memes in 21 st century class learning?2.
How do the participants face the challenges of using humorous memes in 21 st century class learning?3.

Results and Discussion
To ensure unsaturated result of the study, bracketing was undertaken.The disclosures of the preconceived ideas given by the participants' verbatim transcriptions from the in-depth interviews constitute the horizonalization which highlights the significant statements from the same.From the raw protocol the researcher came up with significant statements presented in the table below: From the horizonalization of significant statements.The researcher was able to identify five (5) theme clusters focusing on two groups which answer the two central questions of the study: the what (textual description) and the how (structural description).
Table 2 synthesizes the groupings of clustered themes based on the significant statements and their respective ideas.What is the lived experience of the participants in using humorous memes in 21 st century class learning?Theme 1: An edge in determining students' readiness to learn It is revealed by the participants that humor is a very good gauge in finding out whether the students will be ready for class or not, it is some sort of barometer to gauge the weather condition of the class if they are ready for the lesson.It set the mood of the students making them ready for the subsequent order of the class.Humor helps students to be awake and attentive in class especially when the course is very "philosophical", "scientific" or laden with unfamiliar terms (Ashipaoloye, 2013).

Table 2 Five Theme Clusters Divided into Two Groups
"In one of my class, one time when it was very noisy and students were very restless, what I did is to turn on the LCD projector and the images I flashed were memes of people planking.There were about 10 pictures and the series showed people doing it in the most odd situation and location, each picture would be much odd than the one that preceded it, the final picture is so comic that everyone laugh.I then knew that I already got their attention and seized the moment to jump directly to my topic that day." "These usually set the mood of the children in my class.The atmosphere becomes more relax because of the humors I inject in my lectures since it makes the class happy." The focus of the learners needed be directed toward what is existing in front of them, what is happening in front of them, that is, the teacher in front or sometimes the classmates in front (perhaps called upon to recite or do something on the board).The students' readiness to respond is therefore valuable and this requires readiness.Readiness should also be emotional rather than plain cognitive since learning can pass through this domain as well.Therefore, mood setting is as essential as the physical and cognitive perks.The improve classroom atmosphere as a result of humor (Garner, 2005) can pave a way for good mood of the class and therefore readiness to take on the challenges of everyday activity of the class.
"Definitely.I consider humorous memes as totally a part of the lesson.It can actually set the mood as well as deepening the lesson.""Aside from they are proper means to arouse the interest of the students to the lesson, funny stories may also be a spring board for students to reflect on the subject discussed and their realization of the impact of the lesson in their personal and professional life."Theme 2: A realization of the 21 st class learning environment.
The 21 st century class environment for one is characterized by the amount of technology one put up with.These means using electronic devises and electronic media is an important component of the 21 st century class learning.This couple with humor in the form of memes that can be readily available in the internet form a very strong environment for a technology based learning.Also based from the study of Berk (1996), humor tends to Laughter in Class.... be more effective when two or more of the senses, especially visual and aural (in the form of memes such as pictures or videos and oral), are involved rather than just one sense.From the disclosure of the participants, the researchers found that these two elements of sensation were indeed part of their learning environment.
"Technology is a vital part of my teaching strategy.I use social media in encouraging students to be more involved in valuing the lessons.Video presentation is also an important tool in lessons.Students are also required to use the net in researching relevant topics.""The class is actually bored if they will have plain lecture.You will find that some students are not listening, some are talking, some are texting and some are either sleepy or sleeping already.But when you started showing them some memes, they will become lively again.""It is very common for me to start my lesson with jokes, funny remarks or stories and when I present my lecture with PowerPoint presentation I always incorporate funny cartoons, funny quotes, memes and funny stories." Humor can create a positive learning environment, improve communication between students and the teacher, and can increase the amount of information absorbed by students (Friedman et.al. 2002)."Humorous memes are suitable means to promote 21 st century learning which highlights innovative and technological approach."Theme 3: A reduction of anxiety and stress The teachers' disclosure explicitly stated that the use of jokes, funny stories, funny quotes or memes for that matter was given to have significant effects to students' performances (Alkhattab, 2012: Garner, 2012: Friedman et.al. 2002: Berk, 1996) as it reduces the stress of both teachers and students.These stress and anxiety are given to play a negative role in the students' focus and therefore in turn their learning."I always incorporate funny cartoons, funny quotes, memes and funny stories.In times of tension filled days when there are so many stress producing activities such as deadlines to beat, examinations, thesis and so on.Students have so many things in their minds and they cannot fully concentrate during lectures.In these instances that humor becomes very useful.To set the mood of the class I usually start with a humorous statements, jokes, quotes and or show them video or ppp of some memes.This is sure fire to dissipate their stress and perks them up once more as if there are no pending deadlines before them.Even my stress dissipate upon seeing them comes alive again.The effect is equally beneficial to my students and me.""Moreover, using humorous memes is an attention catcher and a sustainer of learning interest while also developing the analytical and critical thinking skills of my students since memes could spark moments of laughter while also pondering." Humorous memes effectively show positive emotion that the teachers could have a good time as it also makes the students happier in class since stress and anxiety are being reduced (Ziegler, 2009: Stambor, 2006: Friedman, et.al. 2002) Humor as a pedagogical tool enhances learning and creates a more positive classroom atmosphere (Garner, 2005).Forty (40) years of educational humor research indicating that humor increases the strength of human connections, and that non-aggressive, relevant, appropriate humor appears to be a helpful learning tool (Henderson, 2015)."I enjoy injecting humor in my lesson.I sometimes tell funny stories and sometimes I include humorous memes and or other funny quotes or jokes in my PowerPoint presentation.These usually set the mood of the children in my class.The atmosphere becomes more relax because of the humors I inject in my lectures since it makes the class happy.""It makes me filter the affective domain of my learners in terms of their motivation, confidence, as well as anxiety." "Aside from they are proper means to arouse the interest of the students to the lesson and funny stories may also be a spring board for students to reflect on the subject discussed and their realization of the impact of the lesson in their personal and professional life."

2.
How do the participants face the challenges of using humorous memes in 21 st century class learning?3. Theme 4: innovation and commission Teachers use a lot of imagination in order to come up with vital materials or tools for learning.This alone is a big challenge for teachers since effective tools can be utilized in effective teaching.As disclosed by the participants, humorous memes and technology (PowerPoint presentation) can be an effective tool.As humor is considered as a good pedagogical tool (Poirer et.al., 2014: Garner, 2012) and technology an important component of the 21 st century class learning (P21.org,2007).Ready to use memes are already available through the internet and only one has to do is to Google them up.However finding the proper memes for a certain lecture may prove to be difficult as the participants may be using already "shop worn" memes that can no longer elicit humor and therefore looked up into as something old or corny.The participants faced these challenge by coming up with their own tools by researching through the net.With the ready materials found in the net the participants can now innovate.
"I sometimes make my own memes using photos of my students in some other major school activities.The custom made memes are sure hit to the students since the pictures used are very familiar to them.Most of the times the pictures need no editing at all as the picture can speak for itself.There are times that the pictures are meaningless but given meaning based from cues that is inherent in the picture to make it hit with the students.Sometimes additional elements are placed in the picture to make it funny, some apps can already do this such distorting the face, exchanging the faces of two person with pictures taken side by side, making the face into a vampire or animals.Sometimes photoshop can be used to modify the picture which is fun to do.All of these can be useful in customizing your own memes."However some discloses that they are not computer savvy and therefore have difficulty using the computer let alone making their own memes.They disclosed that they don't know how to use different applications and how to upload them more so to find them in the internet."I don't know how to place humorous memes using apps in my lectures (PowerPoint presentation).What I do is call for students who knows how and ask for their help to get memes from those apps." Other participants find it difficult to have relevant memes for the students.Relevant meaning memes that is current, trending and therefore funny for the students.Relevant meaning, it is appropriate for the class in terms of relation of the memes to the subject proper.They solve this problems by commissioning students to come up with a project of coming up with memes taken from the internet.
"Injecting humor in class in itself is not difficult to do.It's a second nature that I am blessed with so really it is not a problem for me.However, the challenge is more technical or should I say technological in nature.This means finding ready memes, funny quotes and stories in the internet.The problem in that is students are very much into internet browsing and many of them already have knowledge or already familiar with the memes that is in the internet, thus, may already missing some element of surprise when used in classes.""I solve this by having my students come up with the memes that they can understand and use this in my lesson on the other class.This proved to be very useful and effective since the submitted memes are the ones they could understand and relate with.I can also come up with a memes that can be useful in a sense that they can be effective in eliciting humor in my class.My students have all the time to watch all these telenovelas so I depend on them when coming up with the latest trend.Also they are the ones who browse so much the internet and therefore know more about what is trending in social media.The trends in social media are good materials to use in coming up with a humorous memes.I don't want to use something that is funny for me that doesn't somehow or in any way funny for the students."Theme 5: observation and reaction From the disclosed protocols another theme sounds clear and this is the gap between two generations.This is the generation gap between the teacher and the students.This is evident in how they view the world.The movie and TV program they watch the music that they listen into, the gadgets they use and the new era that they live in is far different from the participants.Therefore what is being enjoyed and found funny by them doesn't seem to fit the idea of funny for the participants."I am a product of an old school in the dawning of new era so I know the value of the old school and yet I know the relevance of the modern (new) ways which during my college life deemed unconventional.These include of course the incorporation new system of teaching and technology.""Memes that doesn't connect with the students is not a good memes simply because it failed to fulfill its purpose if the students will just find it incomprehensible or corny.Most of my students see me as "old" and therefore my choice is something that they can't relate with like music, movies and interest and of course memes.So finding relevant memes that will interest them is a big challenge as well." It is important therefore that the teacher can convey their thoughts through these memes in order for the humor to be effective.How the teacher and the students observe the world they are into and finding relevance in that through their reaction shows that the challenge had been met.Observation as to age appropriateness and the kind of subject one is handling for this will spell whether the class will respond favorably to the humor that the teacher will use (Darling & Civikly, 2015: Friedman et.al., 2012).However considerations should be made such as the class strength, level and capacity so as to make humorous memes be effective."The level of knowledge of the students must also be taken into account since learning differences cannot be undermined.For instance, too much use of humorous memes may not be applicable for a particular section whose learning background can be described as "below average".This is because utilizing humorous memes also entails responsive thinking ability that will let learners make sense of what they see, that is, the social truth that is reflected by these humorous materials."Textural Description.Three prevailing themes were taken from clearly analyzed and understood teachers' lived experiences I using humorous memes.These are an edge in determining readiness to learn, a realization of the 21 st century class environment and a reduction of anxiety and stress.These are positive experiences that enable them to be successful in their classes and therefore in their career.It is therefore clear that teaching is indeed a noble profession as it understands the nuances of the capacity and the needs of the students.Structural Description.
In consideration of how the teachers faced the challenges before them, two themes emerged.The first one is the innovation and commission that enable the teachers to be creative or innovative, thoughtful and withstanding the boundary of their skills and capacity in terms of technology.Teachers enable themselves to become and learn along with the students as each challenge was faced.The second one is observation and reaction that enable the teachers to feel or filter through the needs and understanding of the class by understanding what is relevant for both of them, thus, coming up with a system and ideas that are effective for both.Essence.
Taken collectively, the accounts of the participants reveal the truth of the experience of using humorous memes.Despite the positive impact of the combination of technology and humorous memes that spell the difference between the 21 st century class learning and the Laughter in Class.... conventional class learning, the teachers were still pressed to face different challenges that these two brought to the fore.This not in any way however diminish their liberty to push through and theretofore pull through the challenges at hand.Verification.
In securing the accuracy of the transcription, analysis and interpretation of the researcher of the participants' disclosures, the researcher met again with them.Their rectification on some parts of the treatment of data was considered prior to the writing of the overall essence to achieve its credibility.Future Direction Humorous memes as phenomena has a very scant literature and warrants further study.Considering that the present study is exploratory in nature and based from the findings, the researchers recommend that a follow-up study be made.The study made use of qualitative design so quantitative design with bigger number of respondents is also in order therefore recommended.
online: 18 May 2009) Kaplan and Pascoe (published online by American Psychological Association, 2015) studied the effect of humor and humorous examples on the comprehension and retention of lecture material.A test of comprehension and retention was given twice: immediately after the lecture and 6 wks later.Immediate comprehension was not facilitated by the use of humorous examples.Upon retesting, however, retention of concept humor material was significantly improved by viewing a lecture with humorous examples illustrating concepts.
edge in determining students' readiness to learn Filter the affective domain Arouse students' attention and set the mood Had their undivided attention and sustain their learning interest Theme 2: A realization of the 21 st class learning environment Concretely visualize an idea or concepts Sustainer of learning interest Appropriate the value of the course I teach Promote global consciousness Theme 3: A reduction of anxiety and stress Making the setting a very light atmosphere Could spark moments of laughter It makes the class happy

"
I usually solve this issue by browsing in the internet and looking at what is trending with the youngsters.Talking with the students work well in finding out what is hip and what is not.""What I do is chat with my students about what are trending memes, videos or funny pictures that they usually get from the internet and those are the things I use in my lectures.Some of them I get from listening to my children or nieces and nephews talking about the latest trending issues from the net when we are having get together such as party and reunions."