‘I’m Bored’: The Dreaded Student Complaint

“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. (Honestly, we probably said these things ourselves in classes long before smartphones existed.)

To decipher what students are really trying to communicate and determine what they actually 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 actually be struggling,” Westgate notes. “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,” as Andreas Schleicher writes in OECD Education and Skills Today.

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 Lydia, 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; I have fond memories of baking a cake version in my own science class and using Twizzlers to represent the endoplasmic reticulum.

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

High school senior BZ expresses 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. BZ isn’t alone; 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 30 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 BZ 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.