Preschool Teachers' Sense of Humor and Children's Appreciation of Humor

Abstract

This study, which was conducted with 364 preschool children and 47 preschool teachers in order to determine the relationship between preschool teachers' sense of humor and children's appreciation of the value of humor in their classrooms, is a relational survey model. The data of the study were collected with "Personal Information Form", "Multidimensional Sense of Humor Scale- Updated Turkish Form" used to determine teachers' sense of humor, "Humor Observation Form'' prepared by the researcher to determine children's appreciation of the value of humor, and "Humor Observation Form" and used with a 5-minute video with examples suitable for the stages in Paul McGhee's humor development theory. It was determined that preschool teachers' sense of humor was at a good level, and there was no significant difference between teachers' sense of humor and teachers' age, class size, and age of children in their classes. It was determined that the sense of humor of teachers with a seniority of 11-15 years was significantly higher than those with a seniority of 16 years and above. It was determined that children's appreciation of the value of humor was at a moderate level, and there was no significant difference between the gender of the children and both their appreciation of the value of humor and their level of finding the video funny. It was determined that there was a significant difference between the ages of the children and both their appreciation of the value of humor and their level of finding the video funny. 61-72 month old children's levels of appreciating the value of humor and finding the video funny were higher than 48-60 month old children. It was determined that there was no significant relationship between teachers' sense of humor and children's appreciation of humor.