Laughter In Science Classroom:An Interaction Analysis Based On Social Constructivism Theory

Laughter is a basic social and cultural phenomenon.Although there are abundant researches on laughter in institutional interaction,the research on laughter in classroom is still on the edge of classroom interaction research.The seriousness of science makes laughter in science class particularly unique,which is worthy of in-depth exploration,but there is currently no research in this field in China.Based on the social constructivism theory,this thesis adopts the video based interaction analysis method,takes the 61 hour video of the sixth grade science classroom in a school in Shanghai as the main analysis materials,selects 66 laughter interaction episodes for multimodal conversation analysis,and explores the situations of laughter in the science classroom,the ways teachers and students participate and the functions of laughter.This study divides the laughter in the classroom into four categories:teacher-initiated epistemic laughter,teacher-initiated non-epistemic laughter,student-initiated epistemic laughter and student-initiated non-epistemic laughter.The analysis shows that teacher-initiated epistemic laughter occurs in three situations: the teacher simulates the wrong experiment operation,the teacher’s utterance connects daily life,and the teacher’s turn contains the false statement.Teacher-initiated non-epistemic laughter accounts for the largest proportion,which occurs in three situations: teacher’s "comedy performance",teacher’s ridicule of students,and teacher-student "conspiracy".Student-initiated epistemic laughter includes the laughter initiated by the wrong answer of the student,the laughter initiated by the student’s connection with knowledge,and the laughter initiated by the words of the student breaking expectations.Student-initiated non-epistemic laughter is equally meaningful.It can maintain the social relationship between teachers and students,express appreciation for humor,reduce the severity of problematic behaviors,and display affiliation or disaffiliation.This thesis draws three conclusions based on the research results.First,laughter affects the real-time construction of the power relationship between the teacher and students,weakening the authority of the teacher and increasing the subjectivity of students.Second,there are two interactional tracks in the classroom,i.e.teaching track and social relations track.Smooth teaching is based on a good relationship between teachers and students.Laughter can maintain social relations and promote the teaching process.Third,laughter can reshape the interactional culture of science classrooms by changing the participation framework and strengthening the cohesion of the learning community.Finally,this study suggests that teachers should recognize the initiative of students in laughter interactions,use laughing moments as teaching resources,develop a sense of humor,and build up relationship of confidence with students.