N W Moses

Using humor in evaluating student performance.

This article describes an investigation of the effects of deliberate teacher humor as an evaluative strategy on anxiety and performance levels of beginning associate degree nursing students in a stress-producing simulated laboratory setting. While quantitative findings did not show that deliberate teacher humor reduced anxiety, and only partially demonstrated that humor improved performance, qualitative findings indicate that humor influenced both anxiety and performance. The authors suggest that this additional evaluative strategy may enhance the nurse educator's effectiveness in carrying out stress-producing evaluations.