Location
Daytona Beach, Florida
Description
In a 1968 work entitled, "A Teacher is Many Things", Drs. Earl Pullias and James Young elaborated on the many qualities or roles often required by an instructor at the college/university level. A litany of these roles include qualities such as: guide, teacher, searcher, counsellor, creator, evaluator, knowledge . authority, emancipator, learner, facer of reality, and culminator, to name a few. Two of the roles mentioned in their book, "storyteller and actor", might appear to be unnecessary, or even questionable in their suitability for such a list. How does storytelling and acting relate to being an effective teacher? According to Pullias and Young, storytelling provides the student with a sense of place and identity and the ability to discover " ... how others have solved problems similar to their own, .. .learn to appreciate their own lives ... feel inferior ... superior ... be repelled or inspired" (1968, p. 161). As an actor, the individual plays the role of a teacher, developing ways to carefully stage the learning moment for the class, a role the individual maintains throughout the time he/she is on stage before his/her students. Thus, the classroom professor assumes the role of an "edutainer (Zemke, 1991). The professor functions both as an educator and entertainer on the learning stage.
A Pilot Study to Assess the Effects of Humor in Relationship to Teaching Effectiveness
Daytona Beach, Florida
In a 1968 work entitled, "A Teacher is Many Things", Drs. Earl Pullias and James Young elaborated on the many qualities or roles often required by an instructor at the college/university level. A litany of these roles include qualities such as: guide, teacher, searcher, counsellor, creator, evaluator, knowledge . authority, emancipator, learner, facer of reality, and culminator, to name a few. Two of the roles mentioned in their book, "storyteller and actor", might appear to be unnecessary, or even questionable in their suitability for such a list. How does storytelling and acting relate to being an effective teacher? According to Pullias and Young, storytelling provides the student with a sense of place and identity and the ability to discover " ... how others have solved problems similar to their own, .. .learn to appreciate their own lives ... feel inferior ... superior ... be repelled or inspired" (1968, p. 161). As an actor, the individual plays the role of a teacher, developing ways to carefully stage the learning moment for the class, a role the individual maintains throughout the time he/she is on stage before his/her students. Thus, the classroom professor assumes the role of an "edutainer (Zemke, 1991). The professor functions both as an educator and entertainer on the learning stage.