95% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or good
Learn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish.
Find out more
ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Educ.
Sec. Higher Education
Volume 10 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/feduc.2025.1451584
Effects of Professor Swearing on Learning and Perceptions: A Pilot Field Study
Provisionally accepted- 1 Department of Physical Therapy, Samford University, Birmingham, United States
- 2 School of Communication and Media, Ulster University, Coleraine, United Kingdom
- 3 Department of Human Studies, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, United States
- 4 Department of Physician Assistant Studies, Samford University, Birmingham, Alabama, United States
The purpose of this pilot study was to provide preliminary evidence on the effects of an instructor swearing during a lecture on learning and student perceptions in a field classroom setting. First-year doctoral students (n=36) who were enrolled in a Human Anatomy course within a physical therapist education program were randomly assigned to a non-swearing lecture (NSL; n=18) or a swearing lecture (SL; n=18) on basic human anatomy. A single instructor provided identical 40-minute lectures to each student group except for two inserted phrases to emphasize content which differed between NSL and SL. For the NSL, the instructor emphasized the content by stating: "Anatomy just makes sense sometimes" and "Anatomy is interesting". For the SL, the content was emphasized by saying "Anatomy just makes f***ing sense sometimes" and "This s**t is interesting". Following the lectures, a 10-question post-lecture knowledge retainment assessment ('pop' quiz) was given to the NSL and SL groups. The SL group also completed a 14-item mixed methods survey with 12 Likert and 2 open-ended questions regarding student perceptions. Results revealed that there were no differences in knowledge retainment on the 'pop' quiz scores between the NSL and SL (p=0.780). Results from the mixed methods survey suggested an overall neutral to positive response to the SL whereby swearing did not negatively impact learning or perception of the instructor or the class. Collectively, this pilot field study provides preliminary evidence suggesting that swearing during a lecture in higher education neither helps nor hurts student learning or perceptions of instructors and Deleted: 2
Keywords: Swearing, higher education, Perception, Recall, Learning
Received: 19 Jun 2024; Accepted: 01 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Washmuth, Stapleton, Ballmann and Caulkins. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Nicholas Washmuth, Department of Physical Therapy, Samford University, Birmingham, United States
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.