Boring Education

Current style of teaching

Education is a relatively stable process as technically speaking, most schools are still using traditional (yet reliable) methods for the classroom experience. While there has been recent developments in creating more interactive classes through sandbox environments, constructivism and inquisitive based learning, Larson and Richards (1991) made the following observations:

Schoolwork is, indeed, frequently boring. The single activity students most often found boring was homework, followed closely by classwork. Overall, the average student reported feeling bored thirty-two percent of the time they were doing schoolwork. Within the school day, listening to another student proved to be the most boring activity. After that came listening to the teacher and reading. The least boring was sports and exercise, followed by lab and group work, and then talking with the teacher. (Gershon 2018)

Another similar finding was observed by Jason (2017) as he notes a 2013 Gallup poll of 500,000 students in grades five through 12 found that nearly eight in 10 elementary students were “engaged” with school, that is, attentive, inquisitive, and generally optimistic. By high school, the number dropped to four in 10.

A 2015 follow-up study found that less than a third of 11th-graders felt engaged. When Gallup asked teens in 2004 to select the top three words that describe how they feel in school from a list of 14 adjectives, “bored” was chosen most often, by half the students. “Tired” was second, at 42 percent. Only 2 percent said they were never bored. The evidence suggests that, on a daily basis, the vast majority of teenagers seriously contemplate banging their heads against their desks.

Thoughts: There is a real risk of students being uninterested and unmotivated to engage in class. Students need to find learning fun and have the opportunity to interact with their surroundings as opposed to being purely passive learners. Aupperlee (2021) notes that effective active learning methods use not only hands-on and minds-on approaches, but also hearts-on, providing increased emotional and social support

In short, educators should make use of technology to discover new ways to engage students while minimizing the negative psychological effects of isolation, restlessness and inattention as the pandemic made it clear that traditional approaches to education may not be the best way to learn.