A University of Arkansas at Little Rock professor is sharing his insights on how to use humor as a pedagogical tool while teaching public health.

Dr. Amar Kanekar, associate professor and graduate coordinator of health education and promotion at UA Little Rock, has published a chapter in a book, which will soon be published by Curious Academic Publishing, that is helping educators to be funnier and more effective in the classroom.

“I felt that there is a need for humor in teaching in my area, particularly since the pandemic started, and humor can be a great pedagogical tool when used correctly,” Kanekar said. “It’s also an innovative strategy for teaching topics which are inherently tedious or serious, like statistics.”

The book, “Teach Public Health With a Sense of Humor: Why (and How to) Be a Funnier and More Effective Public Health Teacher and Laugh All the Way to Your Classroom,” will be released this month. It is a recommended professional development guide for public health educators to minimize teacher burnout and improve teaching effectiveness.

“This book is not about boring academic theories,” said Dr. Kishor Vaidya, editor of the book and associate professor at the University of Canberra, Australia. “The Public Health teachers will get a better appreciation for humor. Not only will they learn how to discover practical humor techniques and teaching strategies to dramatically improve their sense of humor, they’ll have plenty of healthy laughs along the way.”

Kanekar wrote his book chapter, “Using Humor as a Pedagogical Tool in Public Health,” with Dr. Manoj Sharma, a professor at the University of Nevada – Las Vegas. Their chapter covers teaching strategies such as using funny stories with a moral, telling jokes to lighten up the serious art of teaching, and using simulation games, YouTube videos, movies, and websites to build humor into lessons.

“I decided to contribute a book chapter to this book as I felt that there was a dearth of literature related to use and application of humor as a strategy and a tool for public health faculty across the nation and beyond,” Kanekar said. “I hope that with this chapter, along with my colleague Dr. Sharma, we can cover some ideas and strategies applicable to not only face-to-face format but online as well.”

The Kindle Edition of the book is available on Amazon.