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THE EFFECT OF ENJOYMENT ON LEARNING

Conference Paper · March 2018

DOI: 10.21125/inted.2018.1087

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Joanna Hernik Elżbieta Jaworska

West Pomeranian University of Technology, Szczecin West Pomeranian University of Technology, Szczecin
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 THE EFFECT OF ENJOYMENT ON LEARNING
Joanna Hernik, Elżbieta Jaworska
Faculty of Economics, West Pomeranian University of Technology in Szczecin (POLAND)

Abstract
The purpose of the paper: Paul Ekman, an expert in the field of emotion, has identified four primary
emotions that are universally acknowledged: fear, anger, sadness and enjoyment. All of these
emotions evoke engagement, but not all of them build a state of being willing to do difficult things, and
to think deeply about them, and finally develop new solutions and new knowledge. There are many
works discussing the influence of emotions on learning, and of course some of them prove that
enjoyment and happiness have a positive effect on learning, memory and social behaviour.
Enjoyment, understood as positive impression due to positive stimuli, or otherwise feeling of
satisfaction, is an indispensable element of a balanced life. This is extremely important because being
in harmony means feeling safe, feeling valued and a necessary part a group, also in case of a learning
community. So, enjoyment creates a community, but it also evokes positive memories and make them
stronger. Taking this assumption as a starting point we want to prove, that the way of discussing and
explaining issues, problems, during lectures with students is of great importance for remembering new
information. Many teachers believe that their lectures cannot be presented in a light or pleasant way
because they are too serious by nature (like mathematics, statistics or accounting). We want to prove
that it is not true, and in each case it is possible to select the appropriate emotional stimuli, that will
arouse positive emotions, and, as a result, will allow memorizing information better. So, the main
purpose of the paper is to give a proof that enjoyment positively affects the memorizing of information,
taking accounting and company image management classes as an example.
Design / methodology / approach: The methods used to achieve the aim of the paper involved: (a)
studying the literature on emotions and learning, (b) designing and conducting an experiment in 4
groups of students, and examining the increase in knowledge in case of 1) standard and 2) joyful
lecture. After the lecture, a questionnaire measuring increase of knowledge will be used.
Main findings: Results of the experiment show that, thanks to joyful lectures, students are not only
happier, but they also remember more information, even if topics relate to purely business problems.
Despite the fact that in the case of accounting the results of the experiment are not so clear, in the
case of management classes students evaluated funny classes as better than traditional ones. They
also remembered more information. That's why we can put forward a thesis that one of barriers to
learning is rigid and serious way of teaching.
Originality / the value of the research: Numerous studies on emotion and their role in learning have
been conducted, but few researches show clear quantitative results of and discuss teaching such
subjects as accounting and company image management.
Research limitations / implications: The feature of experiments is that they are based on original
author`s idea and test small samples - all this makes the generalization of results to the whole
population / to other cases/ difficult.
Keywords: barriers to learning, emotions, enjoyment, accounting, management, experiment.

1 INTRODUCTION
Everybody (almost) believes that good emotions can positively influence our physical as well as
psychological state. But, according to Paul Ekman [1], until now attention of most research has been
focused on feelings which trigger problems to others and ourselves. That is why we know a lot about
anger, hatred and jealousy, and we do not know much about excitement or bliss. We should
understand, that emotions are really significant because they prepare us to deal with important events
without the need of thinking about what to do – we just know. And all emotions can arise for nine
reasons: 1) operation of autoappraisers, 2) reflective appraisal, 3) memory of a past emotional
experience, 4) imagination, 5) talking about a past emotional event, 6) empathy, 7) suggestions from
the environment, 8) violation of social norms, and 9) by the novelty or surprise [1]. In this article, we
want to discuss positive emotions that give us satisfaction and joy. In practice, such emotions are very

Proceedings of INTED2018 Conference ISBN: 978-84-697-9480-7

5th-7th March 2018, Valencia, Spain 0508
difficult to study because it is not known when they will appear. This, in turn, results from the fact that
we are very different, and as individuals, and we react differently in similar situations.
As individuals, we also are very distinct educators, performing teacher's work based on traditions of a
particular education system, legal norms as well as own beliefs and experiences. Education can be
seen as a practice that achieves its goals through creative processes involving both craft and design
[2]. Craft can be understood here as all materials (texts, presentations, exercises) that teachers
produce and next use during lectures. Design, then, is an individual knowledge or skill of the teacher
which provides the whole envelope of contact with students.
The essence of teaching is expressed - as H. Gajdamowicz [3] emphasizes - in guiding the student's
learning process. But, the teacher's task is not only to teach, but to make students know something. It
follows that there must be an interaction between the teacher and the student in a teaching process.
That is why an attitude of a student to classes, his mood and feelings strongly conditioning interaction,
are so important.
Teaching models, of course, can be analyzed from different points of view, and depending on the
goals for which this process is to be used, there are three levels of teaching. The lowest level is
“subordinated teaching”, focused on acquiring knowledge and skills by students. Higher level is the
“exercise teaching”, which aim is to train mental ability (skills), such as memory, observation bottom
(attention), and thinking. The third and the highest degree is “educational teaching”, i.e. the teaching
which should be understood as upbringing [3]. But for sure the most important goal of teaching at all
its levels is to develop student's personality and prepare young people for independent participation in
society.
According to the goals also teaching methods are selected. They are understood as a purposefully
and systematically used way of working with students, which enables them to master knowledge along
with the ability to use it in practice, as well as develop their cognitive abilities and interests. And again,
here there can be different typologies of methods used, but among the basic ones we can mention [3]:
1 methods based on words: lecture, story, talk, description, discussion, work with the book;
2 methods based on observation and assessment: display, measurement;
3 methods based on practical activity of students: laboratory, practical classes;
4 activating methods: brainstorming, theater and staging, teaching games etc.
The use of different teaching methods depends, for example, on the age of a student, his knowledge
and experience of the teacher himself. But, anyhow, the teacher's task is to fully develop the student's
personality, covering all its aspects, that is, both intellect and character traits.
At the higher education level, the most popular form of conducting classes are lectures – they have a
general, introducing character and they dominate in lower years. As the knowledge deepens, students
participate in exercises, laboratories, and seminars – depending on specificity of the course – which
give in-depth knowledge.
In the literature it is stated that learning can be divided into three stages: 1) acquiring new information,
2) processing information, and 3) enlarging information resource with an assessment [4]. But another
issue is how to learn? For sure, when learning a student should: be rested, not hungry and not fed up;
should ventilate the room where he will learn; remember about a comfortable chair, desk or table;
about good lighting, preferably on the left side; and be really focus on learning. These are threshold
conditions. Moreover, from the point of view of the student's activity, learning can be active or passive.
Passive learning is dominant nowadays and it involves reading and repeating texts. During active
learning, in turn, the student is doing something, is experiencing – is engaged. To learn effectively a
student should have kind of protective shield against distractions, like Facebook notifications,
telephones, making coffee, or eating snacks, because all of this hinders learning.
In a lecture room the teacher should take care of an environment – outside noise, calling phones, or
conversations between students, can be disturbing. To attract and keep students' attention and help
them to learn, the teacher must use activating teaching methods, such as group work, simulation
game, staging, discussion, case study, interview, games and crosswords, outdoor work. And here,
active teaching and active learning meet, because such methods absorb the student and arouse
emotions, through which allow him to experience knowledge and remember it better. The question
arises, is the method alone enough to get results? Should it be supported? We think that it should –
with good emotions. And now the important issue is what kind of feelings are aroused during teaching,

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and how to evoke positive ones? One can start with an idea that the method ought to be used with
appropriate language and images, triggering emotions. And this is a problem the next paragraphs
address.

2 METHODOLOGY
The aim of our article is to show that classes conducted in a pleasant, humorous way, better affect
student`s satisfaction and memorization of knowledge.
To achieve the aim we used methods:
a) literature review regarding emotions, teaching and learning,
b) an experiment conducted in 4 groups of students, and examining the level of satisfaction and
increase in knowledge.
The scheme of experiment:
Participants of the experiment were students of the Faculty of Economics at West Pomeranian
University of Technology in Szczecin, Poland. A total of 97 students in an age 21-23 years old
participated, and the project was carried out in classes on accounting and company image
management.
The same topic was discussed in two groups learning accounting, and another topic, of course, in the
next two groups learning image management. The first class was initiated with a joke, also funny
stories were included in the presentation. In addition, the teacher praised each student's activity, thus
increasing his / her involvement and satisfaction. The second class was carried out in a normal way -
polite, but not funny. Students were motivating to be active but did not receive praises. After each
lecture, a questionnaire measuring contentment and growth of knowledge was used. In the
questionnaire we have asked if: Classes were interesting? Classes were too long? Classes were
difficult? Students learned something new? The teacher was nice? Students feel good at these
classes? And if classes were exhausting? Results of the study are presented in the next part of article.

3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

3.1 Review of positive emotions

We feel emotions every day and, importantly, we experience emotions as happening to us, not chosen
by us [1]. Of course, people, in general, organize their lives to maximize the experience of enjoyments,
but actually in large part they cannot affect what will happen and what feelings it will cause (although
the control over feelings is possible thanks to special trainings and awareness). As mentioned, the
teacher can evoke positive emotions among his students, which brings enjoyment and satisfaction.
But which one from positive emotions? P. Ekman [1] says that there is a lot of enjoyable feelings, and
sometimes it is difficult to know when and which one will arise. Pleasant emotions include for example
[1]:
1 sensory pleasures,
2 amusement,
3 excitement,
4 relief,
5 awe (admiration or wonder),
6 ecstasy (or bliss),
7 pleasure-plus-pride,
8 elevation,
9 gratitude,
10 malicious joy.
It is hard to say which emotions arise frequently, because each has its own conditions. Sensory
pleasures are very individual, and for example there are sounds that are pleasurable, and litter smell is
bad to most people, but, for example, the same picture for some will be pleasant, for others -

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indifferent. Amusement, one of the simplest enjoyable emotion, can be associated with dancing,
playing, cinema, singing, or just spending time pleasantly, and again depends on individual
preferences. Excitement, on the other hand, arises in response to novelty or challenge. It appears
when something is interesting, unexpected, or novel, especially when changes happen quickly or are
challenging. Relief, often accompanied by a sigh, is the feeling felt when something that had heavily
aroused our emotions, disappears. When we are overwhelmed by something, in turn, we feel
admiration or wonder, that can be replaced by a word ‘awe’. We feel awe especially if something is
incomprehensible and mysterious. Different feeling will be caused by self-transcendent rapture –
usually it is ecstasy or bliss that brings great happiness or joyful excitement. The unique situation is
the pride caused by a child's achievements, because it is always a mix of pride, joy and love. There is
no one word for this feeling, that`s why we say ‘pleasure-plus-pride emotion’. Also very uplifting
feeling, that people experience when they see unexpected acts of human goodness, is elevation. It
can be followed by gratitude, another pleasant emotion, that means the readiness to show
appreciation for and to return kindness. And finally we should mention malicious joy – the feeling that
is pleasant for us, but is disapproved because of someone's failure in the background.
Enjoyment is understood as the state or process of taking pleasure in something. Therefore, we
assume that our students would show greater interest and satisfaction when the lecture is conducted
with humor. We believe also that taking pleasure in learning is one of the conditions of having
outcomes. So, the teaching process can be supported by humor, because it has the potential to
humanize, illustrate, defuse, encourage, reduce anxiety, and simply keep people thinking [6], [7].
Probably, because of humorous lecture nobody will feel ecstasy, but it can be amusement or
excitement, that will help to understand and memorize.

3.2 Enjoyment and positive emotions in the classroom - results of the

experiment
As already mentioned, the experiment consisted of conducting classes with students in a humorous
and traditional way. Our respondents were students taking part in accounting and image management
classes. First groups (of accounting students) rated funny and traditional classes in a similar way. This
is a surprising result that contradicts our thesis. Causes can be associated with two potential factors:
1 accounting classes were practical exercises requiring concentration and performing
calculations, because of this, students could relax and give in to the atmosphere, but to a lesser
extent;
2 despite the teacher's efforts, a group of people who are not tight witch each other will not react
in the same way, as a group of friends, so the internal relations between group members are
also important.
The meaning may also have the specific character of people taking part in the classes (weaker-
stronger groups). So, as shown in Fig. 1, classes conducted with humor, in case of accounting, were
not rated by students as better. Moreover, in two categories, they were even rated worse (‘classes
were difficult’, and ‘classes were exhausting’).

6  

5  
standard
funny
4  

3  

2  

1  

0  
Classes Classes Classes I've learned The I feel good Classes
were were too were something teacher at these were
interesting long difficult new was nice classes exhausting

Figure 1. Average assessment given by accounting students (n=54).

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Different results were obtained in two subsequent groups - image management students, where
students rated funny classes much better (Fig. 2).

6
standard
5
funny
4

0
Classes Classes Classes I've learned The I feel good Classes
were were too were something teacher at these were
interesting long difficult new was nice classes exhausting

Figure 2. Average assessment given by image management students (n=43).

It must be emphasized that the classes on image management were a classic lecture with a power
point presentation. So, students listened to the lecture, took notes and answered questions. And they
did not have to calculate anything, of course, therefore they did not have to be very focused. Hence,
there are differences in the assessment of classes (Fig. 3).

Classes were exhausting 2,1

2
I feel good at these 4,2
4,8
The teacher was nice 4,8
4,9
I've learned something 4,1
4,2
Classes were difficult 2,5
1,8 accounting
Classes were too long 2,3 management
2,8
Classes were interesting 4
4,5
0 2 4 6

Figure 3. Entertaining classes - differences in opinions (n=97).

As shown in Fig. 3, image management students more often believed that classes were interesting,
that they learned something new, or that the teacher was nice – although they more frequently thought
that the classes were too long. Importantly, there was an increase in knowledge depending on the way
of conducting classes, and again we have to give surprising – in our view – results:
1 in case of accounting, in standard classes students were able to memorize 68% of information,
while only 58% in the humorous one;
2 in case of image management, in standard classes students memorized 42% of information,
while 59% in the humorous lecture.
Admittedly, average results favor using humor in class (memorizing during funny activities: 58.5%,
during standard classes: 55%), but we did not expect such answers in case of accounting. The results
obtained are interesting, but should be repeated on a larger number of studies, and during various
lectures; this would allow for more reliable results.
Many studies confirm that emotions play an important role in learning, influencing a range of cognitive
processes, such as attention, memory storage, retrieval and problem solving [12]. There is body of

0512
evidence that point out that negative deactivating emotions on the part of the teacher take a negative
toll in the classroom, while positive activating emotions render a positive effect on student learning.
Some other research, however, show that the question is less about positive and negative emotions,
but rather about the degree of activation implied – there can be positive but activating emotions, or
positive but deactivating, and there can also be negative-activating and negative-deactivating
emotions [13]. On the other hand, however, it is also important what kind of emotions to use and how
often [7]. We should remember that humor used in private situations is more innate and natural, while
humor in public situations (like in a class) is managed [1], so participants do not always react as we
expect them to.
The way in which accounting knowledge is to be passed on to students depends largely on their
professional experience: if they already have some knowledge in this field, they will feel more at ease
and will accept jokes more willingly. If everything is new to them, they will rather concentrate on
learning. Knowledge in the field of image management is easier to deliver – a teacher can use many
examples of practices enriched with illustrations, for example. What is more, students can share their
own observations and experiences. That is why they are not so concentrated, and are more open for
additional elements, such as humorous comments. It can be said that knowledge about circumstances
of teaching and student preferences is necessary for effective process and outcomes. A better
understanding of factors affecting acquisition and consolidation of knowledge should result in greater
efficiency of teaching [4]. Knowledge of all circumstances also allows the teacher to use humor and
conduct humorous classes with benefits for all stakeholders.
Calvo-Carmona [9] underlines that humor has been frequently used in the classroom to expand
students’ engagement and attention. But the fact is that sometimes the pleasure of learning is derived
not because of humor, but for example from self-involvement, as in case of legal studies, for example,
and street law and mooting techniques [10]. But many signals confirm that teachers on all education
levels are bound by chokingly detailed work of classes preparation, and all of the accompanying
paperwork. This has produced increased pressure and constraint, improbable demand on teachers’
time, and a systematic elimination of sense of happiness and pleasure from classrooms [11]. Definitely
this is a negative phenomenon, and every effort to bring humor and joy back to classes is desirable.

4 CONCLUSIONS
By feelings, also when teaching and learning, we approach the reality, and we experience various
situations of everyday life specific to us - feeling enjoy or grieve, and expressing all kinds of emotions
that are an inseparable element of our existence. Certainly teaching is an emotional activity and it
reflects emotions of the teacher and students. There many research, mentioned in this article already,
confirming that joy can bring positive experiences and outcomes. It can bring even enthusiasm, if
there is feeling of challenge, cooperation, excitement and success [14].
In this article we wanted to give a proof that enjoyment positively influences the didactic process,
increases the satisfaction of participants and can positively affect memorizing of information. General
results, obtained thanks to the experiment, confirm our assumptions: after funny meetings more
people were satisfied with classes, more claimed to have learned something new, more declared that
they feel good at meetings. We also wanted to prove that relaxing and entertaining lectures will allow
students to remember more than the rigid and boring ones, and I general it is true (students
memorized 58.5% of information at the funny lecture vs. 55% in the standard one). However, the
research carried out in the accounting classes was not so unambiguous - students likewise rated
entertaining and standard classes, which may result from group's specificity and from requirements of
the course.
Of course, in the case of humor and fun it should be remembered that not everyone laughs at the
same, that reactions in public places are self-controlled, and that excess of fun can create distracted
or lazy students. Hence, humorous and joyful classes and the practice of their use still have to be
studied.

REFERENCES
[1] P. Ekman, Emotions revealed: recognizing faces and feelings to improve communication and
emotional life, New York, Henry Holt And Company, 2003.

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with technology, Rotterdam, Sense Publishers, 2014.
[3] H. Gajdamowicz, “Tradycje nauczania wychowującego w polskiej pedagogice”, Paedagogia
Christiana 1/29, pp. 123-140, 2012.
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