The role of humor in teaching for creativity

Although there are conceptual and empirical links between creativity and humor, there is no guarantee that a teacher who uses humor as an instructional strategy will support students’ creative expression. The purpose of this chapter is to explore the role that humor can play in teaching for creativity. I introduce a process model of teaching for creativity that posits how a teacher’s humor style can have a differential impact on students’ creative expression. More specifically the model asserts that students will be more likely to take the risks necessary for creative expression if they perceive their teacher’s humor style as affiliative (positive) and, in turn, will view the classroom as conducive to subsequent creative expression if teachers and peers respond to creative risk taking in a supportive rather than aggressive fashion. I discuss the various pathways of the process model and close with a brief discussion of directions for future research.