ABSTRACT
Students become bored for many reasons. Regardless of the source, boredom can scupper the best planned lesson if it results in student disengagement. Ironically, boredom is a quite interesting academic emotion; indeed, it's also an interesting emotion outside the learning environment. Teachers often don't see themselves as the cause of boredom, but students do. Boredom arises through a combination of external such as quality of teaching, and internal such as feelings of task usefulness. Even if the quality of teaching is good, students can still feel bored because they are unable to see the utility in what they are learning. If appropriate, making learning relevant can reduce the instances of boredom. Regular low stakes testing can give students something to aim for and reduce the instances of boredom. In some circumstances, boredom can increase creativity. In fact, boredom can even cause us to inflict pain on ourselves.
