Humour in Adult Education

Humour in pedagogy is well explored in school contexts, especially in connection with science subjects. There is however little research in the context of adult education. At the same time, however, it is known that humour has a positive effect on learning settings because it can, for example, help to reduce stress, reduce learning resistance, and allow new patterns of action to be tried out, therefore contributing to the acquisition of new action competences. It can also help to increase learning success. The chapter presents current research results on the topic of humour in adult education in Germany. The results are based on an online survey in which trainers, teachers, and planners in adult education were interviewed. Particular attention was given to the question of why people working in adult education consider humour important. Respondents were also asked what function they thought humour can fulfil in adult education, what is it that changes with the use of humour in adult education, and what they attribute this to. The distinction between “bad” and “good” humour in the adult education context was also explored. Different perceptions of humour were investigated in terms of age, gender, and cultural differences.