Jon Stewart Comes to Class: The Learning Effects of America ( The Book ) in Introduction to American Government Courses

This project posits that incorporating political humor into the classroom can have a positive effect on learning in higher education. Specifically, we present preliminary findings from a quasi-experiment in which a humorous, “mock” textbook titled America (The Book) (Stewart, Karlin, and Javerbaum 2004 Stewart , Jon , Ben Karlin , and David Javerbaum . 2004 . America (The Book) . New York : Warner Books . [Google Scholar]) was incorporated into Introduction to American Government curricula in conjunction with a standard textbook. Our hypothesis argues that humorous presentations of politics and government can enhance the learning process and increase test scores by way of Matthew Baum's (2003a McMorris , Robert F. , Sandra L. Urbach , and Michael C. Connor . 1985 . “Effects of Incorporating Humor in Test Items.” . Journal of Educational Measurement 22 : 147 – 155 .[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) “gateway” or “incidental by-product” effects. Our empirical findings show no such learning effect. Our qualitative evidence, however, suggests that humor-based teaching is clearly more engaging and interesting for the students.