Boredom in the Classroom is an essential resource
for researchers, scientist-practitioners, clinicians, and graduate students in
the fields of child and school psychology, educational psychology, social work,
and related disciplines.
This brief synthesizes current findings on the many
aspects of chronic student boredom, its relationship with negative academic,
emotional, and health outcomes, and what professionals can do to best address
it. Citing the complexity of this common student emotion, the author spotlights
boredom susceptibility during the critical K-12 years.
The brief analyzes
cognitive and emotional attributes of boredom and identifies emotional skills
that can be strengthened to counteract it. In addition, the volume features
strategies for educators and school counselors to reduce boredom, both
internally and in class.
The academic emotion of boredom, interestingly, is one
of the most commonly experienced emotions of students in schools (Pekrun,
Goetz, Daniels, Stupnisky, & Perry, 2010). It is not an emotion to which
teachers have paid much attention. Certainly teachers have had students tell
them that they are bored in class but teachers may attribute this emotion to
laziness, student anxiety or depression, or to personality variables. School
psychologists and other mental health personnel in schools do not have a history
of either assessing or providing interventions for boredom in schools.
