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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

Cluster offers workshop about soil health
2009-10-12

The University of the Free State’s (UFS) Strategic Cluster 4 (Technologies for Sustainable Crop Industries in Semi-arid Regions) recently presented a workshop about soil health on the Main Campus in Bloemfontein. According to Prof. Wijnand Swart, Director of the Cluster, this topic currently enjoys high priority within the cluster. The workshop was presented to create awareness amongst all interested parties in agriculture about the important role that soil micro-organisms play in crop industries. Research in the cluster follows a “total system approach” by analysing the biodiversity of specific agronomic systems with the aim to develop so-called bio-indicators for the general health of agro-ecosystems. Dr Jill Clapperton from the University of Leithbridge in Canada and the University of Montana in the USA presented four papers during the workshop. Dr Clapperton is a scientist who has gained a lot of international prominence in the field of soil ecology and environmental health. Qualitative and quantitative responses of bio-diversity in time and space on agricultural practices, such as, amongst others, tilling as opposed to non-tilling, manuring, mulching, irrigation and the application of fertilisers, were some of the topics that were discussed during the workshop. Here are, from the left: Dr Forbes Walker, Institute of Agriculture, University of Tennessee, USA; Dr Neal Eash, Institute of Agriculture, University of Tennessee, USA; Prof. Swart; Mr Richard Fowler, Conservation Agriculture Capacitator, Pietermaritzburg; and Dr Clapperton.
Photo: Lacea Loader

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