Mapping the Trend of Humor Studies in Educational Arena: A Text-analytic Approach

Abstract

Humor is considered an educational method that can be implemented in educational processes with a wide range of educational variables. Examining the scope of research on educational humor has the potential to guide future studies. Therefore, the aim of this study is to show the conceptual trend in humor research in education over the past decade. 989 publications on the subject of humor in education were analyzed using the text mining method. A text analytic tool was used for the analysis, and the titles, abstracts, and keywords were included in the text analytics. As a result of the study, humor was studied in terms of various variables in different educational fields. In addition, the reflections of humor in education base on technological developments and the target groups applied were also revealed. The findings revealed the conceptual relationships and concept maps by year. It was concluded that the concept of humor in educational research is particularly related to the variables of motivation, attention, skill, creativity, engagement, and interest. Upon comparing 2010 and 2019, it has been observed that concepts related to online education, science, collaborative learning, and technology in humor studies have spread in recent years. In addition, humor has also emerged as a research phenomenon in language, health, and science education