The effects of the use of humor on student attitude and achievement in Turkish courses (in the sample of İzmir 8th grade students)

The purpose of this research is to discern the effects of the use of humor onstudents? academic achievement and attitudes towards Turkish courses and humor.The research was conducted on 8th grade students of İzmir Buca ŞerifTikveşli Primary School in 2004-2005 academic year. Pretest-posttest experimentaldesign with control group was used for the research. Humor was used in theinstruction of the experiment group whereas the control group received traditionalinstruction techniques. The data of the research were gathered with AttitudesTowards Turkish Courses Scale, Multiple Choice Turkish Achievement Test andAttitudes Towards Humor Scale.The statistical techniques mean, standard deviation, t test, correlation,analysis of variance were used to analyze the data.Results of the study indicate the following:1. The use of humor had a positive effect on the achievement of thestudents in Turkish courses. Compared to the control group, a significant differencefavoring the experiment group was found.2. There was no statistically significant difference between the attitudes ofexperiment group and the control group towards Turkish courses.The use of humor influenced the students in experiment group in theirattitudes towards humor. A significant difference between the groups? attitudestowards humor was found and this difference was in favor of the experiment group.Key Terminology: Turkish Instruction, Humor, Sense of Humor, Attitude,Academic Achievement.