Student Boredom in the Classroom

This week’s article summary is I'm Bored: The Dreaded Student Complaint.

We are lucky to teach in an elementary school. For the most part, complaints from students about being bored aren’t very common, unlike in middle and high school.

We are also fortunate to teach at Trinity, which has always emphasized a pedagogy that fosters student engagement.

So, while the article below is aimed more at middle and high school teachers, the recommendations for mitigating student boredom in the classroom have merit in our elementary classrooms too.

The words I’m bored from a student can mask several reasons a student is disengaged.

The student may not be understanding the content being presented in the classroom.

The student might find the material too repetitive or easy. Think of what you learned about Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development in which students are optimally engaged with material they can complete with some guidance — the sweet spot between what students already know and what is new.

The student might find the classroom too sedentary. Kids need brain and physical breaks throughout the day. The article says even for middle and high school students 15 minutes of lecture is their maximum limit.

The class may be too teacher-led and lecture-based. Like adults, kids need opportunities to be autonomous and collaborative. 

The classroom may be too predictable. While classroom routines are essential, teachers need to find that balance between predictability and novelty. The human brain seeks to make patterns, but it also needs freshness.

So, while our kids won't often tell us that they’re bored, we need to reflect on both what and how we teach to optimize their engagement and learning.

Joe

—

I’m bored. This class is so boring.

Teachers hear these frustrating words often, and while we may have been tempted in recent years to blame technology use and increasingly short attention spans, these familiar complaints usually signal something deeper.

To decipher what students are really trying to communicate and determine what they need to thrive, we need to dig a little deeper into what I’m bored might mean.

A LACK OF UNDERSTANDING: Often, I’m bored really means I don’t get it. Social psychologist Erin Westgate notes that boredom frequently hides confusion or frustration: “A student who proclaims, ‘I’m bored,’ may be struggling. Scaffolding difficult concepts and providing individualized assignments help students learn to calibrate.” Additionally, students who are afraid to be wrong might mask their trepidation by claiming boredom, which takes the form of students who exhibit behaviors such as ignoring assignments, feigning illness, skipping classes, or acting out. These actions often mask deep feelings of inadequacy or invisibility.

To help students who are feeling confused, ending each class with an informal check for understanding provides formative data that can accurately reveal where everybody stands. For example, if the learning goal in a sixth-grade world history class is to identify the characteristics that define a culture, students might write as many characteristics as they can on a slip of paper before exiting for the day. The teacher can then use this quick check-in to pinpoint students who might be lost, a key step toward addressing boredom rooted in confusion.

NOT ENOUGH CHALLENGE: On the other hand, students may also fall prey to boredom when they’re not being challenged enough. I recently spoke with a high-performing sophomore who shared that when she gets bored, it’s not about her readiness to learn. “In math, we learn the same concept a thousand times. In other classes, I start tuning out because I already know what we’re learning, or the teacher is assigning busywork.”

One way to mitigate a lack of interest on the part of students who are achieving beyond grade-level expectations is to offer extension options on assignments, such as solving “spicier” (more challenging) problems in math class or enhancing a written report with an audio component. Suppose that middle school life science students are drawing cells and labeling their parts, and some students want more leeway to be creative. Those who opt for extension can take their learning further by creating a detailed model of a cell in a medium of their choice.

THE PACING OF THE CLASS IS OFF: Sometimes boredom stems less from a single lesson and more from the overall pace of a class. When the curriculum moves too slowly, students feel stuck in place; when it rushes ahead, they may quietly give up. Both patterns erode engagement over time. Thoughtful pacing includes decisions about how long to linger on a concept, when to spiral back, and when to move on.

Suppose that in an eighth-grade algebra class, students are solving systems of equations, and the plan is to move from one set to the next as a group. If the teacher notices that most students are completing the first set of problems quickly and accurately, a possible tweak to pacing might be to have students who are finished work together to develop their own problems and then trade with one another while the teacher pulls a small group of students who are struggling aside for instruction. By adjusting to in-the-moment data that students present, the teacher is more likely to increase productive interaction and stymie feelings of boredom.

TOO MUCH TEACHER TALK: One high school senior expressed a deep appreciation for school, but his passion for learning has a hard time withstanding lengthy lectures. “If the teacher is just standing up there talking or going off on tangents, I get bored,” he told me. Students tend to find listening to a lecture for an extended period both wearying and boring.

Long stretches of sitting drain focus as blood flow literally shifts away from the brain, making movement essential for learning. The brain-to-body connection is a key ingredient to helping students refresh their cognitive capacity, and teachers can implement strategies like these:

• Limiting “teacher talk” to about 15 minutes and ensuring that students get at least 90 seconds to stand, stretch, and process information.
• Weaving in brief movement breaks, such as a walk across the classroom to talk to a partner about a new concept or to answer a question.
• Integrating standing group work into the class period for activities like solving a math problem or completing a joint exercise such as a historical timeline or a presentation.

REPETITIVE STRUCTURE: Early in my career, a student pointed at an agenda item on the board—a book discussion—and sighed: “We do this every day. Can we do something else?” His question revealed that repetition can drain engagement. Retired teacher Larry Ferlazzo calls this “satiation,” which occurs when students lose interest in overly predictable routines. As the high school senior pointed out, the issue can stretch beyond just one classroom: “We go from class to class that all have the same structure.”

To counter this slide into the mundane, teachers can identify and maintain core daily elements of instruction such as framing and summarizing learning while varying how they deliver content. For instance, in any text-heavy class like science, social studies, or English, the class might alternate between partner reading and instructional read-alouds to keep learning fresh and purposeful. By intentionally ensuring that students achieve course objectives in different ways, teachers have the power to allay boredom that comes from static instruction. Ultimately, when students show little to no interest in class, we can infer, as Westgate explains, that “boredom is a healthy warning that something is off in our environment.” Ensuring that lessons are challenging, varied, and connected in meaningful ways to students’ lives reminds everyone that their voices and experiences belong in the classroom.