The effects of boredom on students’ learning and the 10 golden rules to assure learners’ interest in your classroom.

In the previous post, I identified the 10 reasons behind students’ classroom boredom. Now, I will tackle the effects of boredom on students’ learning and the 10 golden rules to assure learners’ interest in your classroom.

Effects of students’ classroom boredom on their Learning:

The major effects of students’ classroom boredom on their Learning are:

• Inattentive students during the session.
• Detrimental effect on academic achievement.
• School avoidance.
• Risk of dropping out.

We are all aware of the fact that one of the above effects may lead to the other effect and so forth. For example, students who are inattentive during the session may feel disconnected from class, and consequently they will be at the risk of dropping out. Or in another way round, students who are inattentive during the class will face difficulty maintaining their good academic achievement. This by itself may lead to their dropout. Teachers, parents and students have be aware of the vivid and apparent correlation between inattentiveness during the classroom, academic achievement, school avoidance and dropping out. They have to work hand by hand to break this chain by finding means and methods to suppress students’ classroom boredom and elevate their interest in learning.

The 10 ways that help you assure students’ interest in your classroom:

1. Ask thought provoking questions to wake up students’ brains and get them buzzing. Be alerted to the fact that this point works with high achievers who feel the challenge to compete answering such questions. On the contrast, low achievers will feel embarrassed and adopt the passive engagement. Hence, we advise to differentiate the questions by asking two levels questions and giving students the choice to answer the one that appeals to them.
2. Encourage open discussions and debates in your classroom. Ask an open ended question and give the chance for all students to answer. Encourage them all regardless of the level and the value of the given answer. In such discussions, you hear every voice in your classroom!
3. Use one of your hidden powerful tools; your voice to keep students attached to your classroom discussions. Change your voice pitch and tone during the session. Sometimes, you have to use an expressive, sincere voice while the other time, it must be a harsh one. knowing how to best use your voice is a talent that you have to develop. I believe that it looks like playing an instrument; you have to practice playing to best use it.
4. Use a variety of engaging teaching methods that boost your students’ engagement and learning. We all know that “Normal is so boring.” so let us avoid normal in our teaching! Always think of the varied teaching strategies and methods while preparing your lesson plan! They can be simply and easily added to your lesson and will effortlessly amplify your students’ engagement:
   • Kagan’ startegies
   • Inquiry based learning
   • Project based Learning
5. Use gamification to enhance your students’ engagement. Integrating gamification into your lessons is crucial to turn repetitive, plain, boring material into interesting, motivating and quickly attained concepts. Gamification appeals to students as you are taking them to their comfort zone to introduce abstract concepts.
6. Engage students by using humor in the classroom. When properly used, adding a little fun and excitement to you classroom is like the pepper you add to your food to differentiate its taste! It keeps students on task and guarantees enjoying the learning process.
7. Give your students time and space to move in your classroom. Students mustn’t sit still all the session! Prepare activities that require their structured moving. In this way, you channel their energy into a learning activity!
8. Add the brain breaks to your lesson plan to help your students focus. Surprise your bored grade three students by saying ” Saymons Says write on your white board a noun! Saymons says: raise your board up! Saymons says erase the white boards! By a small twist you ignited the fire in your class and you can see the sparkle in the eyes of your kids! Always evaluate your students’ mood and twist accordingly!
9. Add attention grabbers to put your students smoothly back on task! You can use any of these attention grabbers (getters) to attract your students without shouting and screaming in class. They are best used to start a lesson, for the transitions between activities or to direct the class.
10. Add cheers to praise your students and motivate them. These are additives that help connect your students to the learning process and encourage them to participate effectivity during the session.

Turning the above ten points into teaching habits and routines will trigger students’ interest in learning and keep them on task. However, In spite of all the aforementioned points, teachers have to expect some students announcing that they are bored during the session! Don’t be surprised or frustrated! “Bor-ing,” is a word you hear from kids even while they are playing.

Additionally, even though some view boredom as a prime enemy of education, others see that boredom has its positive effects and a little of it is a gift to boost creativity.