The experience of boredom in universities

New research by Sandi Mann and Andrew Robinson has found that boredom during classes may be a regular experience for most university students, and one which is exacerbated in lectures by the use of PowerPoint presentations.

Most previous research into the experience of boredom in education has focused on schoolchildren. This shows that some people are more prone to boredom than others, but also that unstimulating teaching methods can exacerbate the experience of boredom. Being bored increases the likelihood of skipping classes, and this can become a slippery slope, with boredom being associated with poorer grades.

To extend the earlier work to university students, Mann and Robinson surveyed 211 students from various courses at a univerity in the North-West of England. Based on previous research into lecturers' use of PowerPoint slides, they expected this mode of presentation to be one of the main causes of boredom.

Thirty-nine percent of students said 'some' of their lectures were boring, 29% said 'half' were boring, and another 30% said 'most' or 'all' their lectures were boring. Both boredom proneness and the use of PowerPoint were associated with boredom in lectures, and higher levels of boredom were associated with an increased number of missed classes. However, there was no association between boredom and skipping classes once individual differences in boredom proneness were controlled for. Boredom-prone students were more likely to engage in daydreaming, doodling, "switching off", colouring in letters on the handout, and so on.

Surprisingly, the classes that were associated with the highest levels of boredom were ones in which the students were engaged in tasks: laboratory classes and computer classes. However, the authors note that the mere fact of something being a 'doing' activity is not enough to prevent it from being boring. Lab classes are often controlled environments intended to simply verify something that is already known, and this predictability may detract from the level of interest. Likewise, computer classes may include tasks that are not very interesting, and boredom may also result if there are not enough computers for everyone present or if there are not enough staff to assist students in a timely fashion.

Online lecture notes, copying overheads in class, and the use of PowerPoint without handouts, were the next factors most associated with boredom. However, PowerPoint presentations with handouts were not so strongly associated with boredom. Presumably this combination allows students to focus more on what is being said rather than trying to write everything down.

There are some limitations to the study that the authors discuss. These include the use of self-report methods for assessing the frequency of boring classes. Could boredom-prone students be more likely remember more classes as being boring than was actually the case? But overall, the study indicates the importance of adopting stimulating teaching methods and not assuming that 'interactive' classes will automatically be interesting.


Reference

Mann, S., and Robinson, A. (2009). Boredom in the lecture theatre: an investigation into the contributors, moderators and outcomes of boredom amongst university students. British Educational Research Journal, 35 (2), 243-258.