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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

Papers at Theology conference at the UFS published in academic journal
2009-08-21

 
Theology is also a theme outside of the church. This was once again proven with the recent special edition of an academic journal that specifically focused on this theme. The Journal for Christian Scholarship (JCS) dedicated its first special edition for 2009 to a conference on missionary work and conversion to Christianity. This conference, organised by Prof. Pieter Verster of the Department of Missiology in the Faculty of Theolog, was presented at the University of the Free State (UFS) last year. Papers by international speakers from, amongst others, Brazil, India and the Netherlands were recorded in this edition. The JCS is an accredited academic journal that is distributed both nationally and internationally. Here Prof. Daan Strauss (left) from the Faculty of the Humanities at the UFS and editor of the JCS, presents a copy of this special edition to Prof. Francois Tolmie, Dean of the Faculty of Theology. Mr Hugo Hayes (second from the left) executive officer of the Association for Christian Higher Education, and Prof. Pieter Verster, head of the Department of Missiology at the UFS, also attended the occasion.
Photo: Lyzette Hoffman

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