Well, yeah, but I don't think that sarcasm has to be offensive or insulting, I think there's even "friendly" sarcasm (also it doesn't have to be aimed at the students but something the students dislike themselves, helping both sides to bond). And for one, some of my favourite teachers in high school (who were popular and I'd also say successful in general) actually resorted to it a lot. However, those were fellas who generally developed a friendly and kind of personal relationship with the students.

One of them (our English teacher) had a kinda "big brother" attitude towards the students, was generally very friendly and casual and would sometimes make sarcastic remarks but with the kind of friendly smile on his face that made it obvious to anyone that there was nothing to be offended about even if the content of his statement could be interpreted that way.

The other one (an art teacher) tried to maintain extreme authority including the illusion that he has perfectly mastered the subject, knows everything about it, is never wrong, and was seemingly condescending - but he successfully used sarcasm to "casualize" the lessons and is in fact the one teacher whom students frequently visit years after graduating (maybe to this day but he may be retired by now). That guy was and always will be a macho and sarcasm was his way of creating a positive environment and it worked and the students loved it. And already during the first few weeks in the fifth grade (the lowest one in German high-school) all students would understand that when he yelled "you get an F!" or when he would point at the door and yell "get out!" he would be joking, most students would be entertained and the few ones who weren't just weren't (but they wouldn't get hurt or afraid). And among all this comedy he'd still manage to be a great teacher and convey a lot of knowledge.

So really, I wouldn't say that sarcasm in itself is harmful to the learning environment, for some teachers (like that art teacher) it may be one of the best ways to create a positive one, actually. Undeniably you have to be clever and careful when using it, though.

Well, they do not understand it because they haven't learned it yet. I think pedagogues and psychologists are making a huge mistake when they claim that sarcasm just cannot be grasped by children beneath a certain age. I mean, this makes (some) teachers completely avoid the use of it which in turn delays the kids grasping the concept - so you end up with kids who may not get sarcasm until say elementary school and this is taken as evidence for younger kids' disability to understand it - it's a vicious circle. Of course I'm not supporting the idea to insult and harm students psychologically (nor physically :P) but I think that sarcasm is an important element in social interaction and should not be automatically treated as a no-go in teaching.

For one - as I said, my GF is occasionally using sarcasm in kindergarten and the kids *do* get it, at least eventually. She's of course using it sparingly and only when the group as a whole behaves atrociously (never aimed at a single student) and as I said, the kids get it (and are even happy and proud whenever they successfully recognize sarcasm - little kids are adorable :3) and I think this may help them cope later on, with teachers in a bad mood or just mean ones altogether (and not only teachers but people in general). And you said it, there's also older students and even adults who may take sarcasm literally but is it necessarily the fault of the one employing the sarcasm or is it maybe sometimes caused by some deficiency on the student's side?


Well yeah, this is certainly the case for the social sciences and humanities but the people I have in mind, the ones with the kind of mind that can just suck up those huge amounts of information, store it there and "get it" are usually drawn to natural sciences, most of the time the formal ones even, where even the application is not necessarily a social act (as far as I can tell the social part of those is rather presenting results or discussing ways to get them, but actually getting them - at least on the the most fundamental level - appears to be an act happening in one individual's mind). I don't deny that social interaction may still help grasping the subject but I think that it's far less important for the natural and formal sciences than the other ones.

I don't know much about literature about it, but I would like to emphasize the importance of having a positive feeling about the subject you learn, i.e. having fun while learning, maybe even seeing it as a game. As long as you are curious about the subject and open minded and there is not too much pressure, learning should always be possible.

Also it's probably a good idea to learn in a group, time management (not too short, not too long) and not getting distracted while learning, but also to make goals (why do I want to learn something). Most effective learning strategies probably vary from subject to subject but I guess that repeated learning for a small time is probably better than one long but isolated learning period.

I found some (scientific) journals, which might be of some help maybe:
http://www.springer.com/psychology/journal/10648 (Educational Psychology)
http://rer.sagepub.com/ (Review in Educational Research)
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/%28ISSN%291467-8535 (Britisch Journal of Educational Technology)
http://www.journals.elsevier.com/teaching-and-teacher-education/ (Teaching and Teacher Education)
http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/cthe20/current#.UgIy-ndGN3s (Teaching in Higher Education)
http://learnmem.cshlp.org/ (Learning and Memory)
http://www.journals.elsevier.com/learning-and-motivation/ (Learning and Motivation)
http://www.journals.elsevier.com/learning-and-individual-differences/ (Learning and Individual Differences)
http://www.journals.elsevier.com/learning-and-instruction/ (Learning and Instruction)
http://www.springer.com/psychology/journal/13420 (Learning and Behavior)

try search for the book "why don't students like school."

Just wanted to say thanks to you all for the advice and links, it was exactly what I was after. Now I have some reading to do.

Out of curiosity, why the interest in this topic? Don't get me wrong, its not that it isn't an interesting study (it is), but it's not a topic many people seem to know or care about. My interest in it stems from being an education major (many many years ago), and then digging further when I realized I myself have dyslexia and probably mild autism.

Well, I am a software developer, this means that nearly all topics are within my domain as there is software to do just about anything. In this particular case I am interested in how to better develop the skills of my teammates. In order to be able to effectively achieve that, I feel I need to better understand the various ways people learn. It's all very well to send people on courses etc. but there's no replacement in my industry for mentoring, so I need to brush up on my skills in that area.

ahhhh, makes sense. Now if only more trainers and teachers were like you and realized we don't all learn the same way :)

Ah, in that case, it's probably more a matter of motivation than learning theory. People can learn an incredible amount of stuff when they're motivated to do so and the specifics of how that happens will vary significantly.

One of the problems with whichever books you read is that they probably are written by and for left brained linear thinkers, and so they make a lot of assumptions about that, which mean that they aren't as generally applicable as they could be.