Theory: What Is Causing Our Students to Tune Out and Turn Off?

Abstract

Theory provides a way to think about a topic. It tells us how to study it, and how to design and interpret research. It helps us ask important questions that will expand our knowledge about the topic. There have been a number of theories which have attempted to explain boredom and what may cause it. Earlier theories proposed that understimulation caused boredom, others suggested boredom occurs when students are forced to invest effort in order to complete monotonous tasks. Boredom has also been hypothesized to be associated with resistance to school authority. More recently, boredom has been theorized to occur when a student has little control over an activity about which he or she doesn’t care very much. The attentional theory of boredom suggests that boredom is due to a deficit in attentional controls. Boredom may also be the result of a student’s inability to access and understand his or her emotions.