DLT Podcast 13: Miriam Stewart

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In this episode I talk to Miriam Stewart, a teacher and teacher trainer from Ireland. We focus on the “Learning Out Loud”-project, an EU-funded Erasmus+ project in which teachers can explore how to use humor and comedy in the classroom to enrich their teaching skills.

We talk about:

  • How did the “Learning Out Loud” project start?
  • What did they do in the project, what were the outcomes and what was or is Miriam’s role in it?
  • The different topics covered in the teacher training, such as stand-up comedy, the neuroscience of humor, dark humor, the connection of humor and drama techniques, etc.
  • Miriam’s research on dark humor and how it might be used appropriately in a classroom environment
  • how humor and what is perceived as funny varies across cultures
  • the idea of teacher presence and about activities centering on becoming more aware of your own presence as a teacher
  • how to make (adult) learners feel comfortable with humor in the classroom
  • taking risks, perfectionism and comedy
  • sensitive topics and humour in the classroom

Links

The Learning Out Loud Project:

Home

Meaghan Mobbs. (2018). “An awful joke can feel pretty good.” Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/the-debrief/201805/awful-joke-can-feel-pretty-good