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29 January 2024 | Story Igno van Niekerk | Photo Igno van Niekerk
Prof Jannie Pretorius
Prof Jannie Pretorius uses an engaging and humorous teaching style that keeps his Life Science and Natural Science students fascinated and engaged.

Once upon a time, there was a monotonous teacher: the students did not like his lectures. Nothing interesting ever happened. The teacher grew old and retired. The end. Or not? According to research, teaching can be a humorous, fun, and enjoyable experience if you do it differently.

Mr Bean videos and Trevor Noah in the class

Prof Jannie Pretorius, a lecturer in the School of Mathematics, Natural Sciences, and Technology, uses an engaging and humorous teaching style that keeps his Life Science and Natural Science students fascinated and engaged. When starting out at the UFS, Prof Jannie wondered about using humour in a “serious tertiary environment.” He soon discovered that students, like most other people, also enjoy appropriate humour.

Using humour in education turned into a research project, and Prof Pretorius found himself showing Mr Bean videos and watching Trevor Noah shows to develop a lesson where the impact of using intentional humour was studied by measuring students’ reactions. An example from the transcription of his class on the mating habits of the praying mantis, where the female often bites the male’s head off to eat him for nourishment, shows how fun can be integrated into learning:

So, it seems that the praying mantis is like – praying; the male is saying: ‘Please don’t eat me, Sylvia, please!’… (laughter) … and she would pray back and say, ‘Please, Ronnie, I can’t resist you.’ (laughter).

Sensitive to their learners’ preferences

Despite the classes being fun, Prof Pretorius also cautions that it is important for teachers to be sensitive to their learners’ preferences and cultural backgrounds when using humour. “There is always an element of risk in the use of humour. As such, humour should always be used in a respectful and inclusive manner to ensure that all learners feel comfortable and included in the classroom.”

Prof Pretorius recognises that the use of humour depends on educators’ personal preferences. Ultimately, it is about what the students learn.

Listen to Prof Jannie Pretorius talk about his research. 

News Archive

Faculty of Law converses with international students
2009-08-12

 
Pictured here are Emma Finney (left) and Lauren Nydam.
Photo: Stephen Collett
The Department of Constitutional Law and Philosophy of Law at the University of the Free State (UFS) recently hosted two law students completing the practical leg of the Blackstone Legal Fellowship Programme. At this occasion, Lauren Nydam (B.Sc. in Engineering at Duke University School of Law), and Emma Finney (B.A. in History at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law) presented their research.

This annual initiative by the Faculty of Law entails that the students work on a given research topic on legal matters under the supervision of academics, in this case, under the supervision of Prof. Shaun de Freitas, Head of the Department of Constitutional Law and Philosophy of Law and Prof. Andries Raath, Senior Professor in this department.

This programme, run by the Alliance Defence Fund (ADF) in the United States of America (USA), is aimed at teaching Christian law students the importance of religious freedom and rights.

This year, the programme (which has been running for 10 years) accommodates 109 students, representing Schools of Law in the USA, including Harvard, Columbia, Pennsylvania, Notre Dame and Virginia. To date, 700 students have completed the programme. Currently there are students of the programme in Canada, England, France, Bulgaria and Italy.

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