As a teacher, you often look out at the classroom to see students who seem very bored with the lesson. What causes this boredom, and how do we overcome it? The first thing is to recognize that you are bored and then to try to figure out why.
Erin Westgate, a psychologist, would suggest three reasons for boredom. One reason is that the content is too easy for you. There needs to be a certain level of difficulty to keep your interest. On the other hand, you can get bored if the degree of difficulty is too hard. Here, you often just give up.
A third possible cause for boredom is that you find the lesson to be meaningless. You often have students ask, “What is the value of learning this material?” When they cannot answer the value of learning the material, they often become bored.
How can we overcome the problem that the task is too easy? When I worked in a pizza store, you had to fold boxes so that you were prepared for the busiest time in the day. This was a boring task until one day we had a box-folding contest. By putting a time limit on something that is relatively easy, you can make it a little more difficult and therefore alleviate the boredom.
How does the student who struggles with the task being too difficult stop themselves from giving up? One way is to chunk the problem—break it down into small parts so that you might be able to solve a bit at a time.
The last situation is often the toughest. Why am I reading or listening to this? It has nothing to do with my life
. My suggestion would be to put together a list of things that are important to you. Then try to connect what you are learning to one of your priorities. When you are able to do this, you not only decrease boredom but also increase learning.
I hope that you were able to get through this blog post and that these tips prove helpful to you. Let me know how they work.
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