Why Boredom Belongs in the Classroom (and the Coaching Conversation)
Here's an embarrassing confession: I spent three days at a conference on student motivation, sat through session after session on disengagement, and still caught myself thinking, "huh, disengagement sure comes up a lot." Groundbreaking detective work, Gretchen.
That was me last fall at the Association for Educational Therapy (AET) conference, sitting in sessions on motivation, task initiation, and engagement — and leading one myself. But the word boredom kept coming up, too — in other people's sessions, and in the questions I got during mine. And because my company is called the Anti-Boring Learning Lab, that word doesn't just register for me. It stops me.
The name "Anti-Boring" came from years of working with skeptical teenagers. I used to tell students I could make school fun, and they would look at me like, "Yeah…right." Eventually I learned to say something different.
I started telling them: I can't promise school will be fun. But I can promise it doesn't have to be boring. Your teachers might feel boring sometimes, but you don't have to bore your own brain while you're learning. There are things you can do to take charge of your boredom.
That language worked. Students leaned in. They wanted to know how.
But here's what I didn't fully understand back then, and what I want to name up front now: when a student says "I'm bored," they're often not describing an empty feeling. They're describing a barrier they don't have better words for yet. Maybe their working memory is maxed out. Maybe they can't figure out how to start. Maybe their nervous system is already overloaded and "boring" is the closest word available. "Boring" isn't the diagnosis. It's the symptom.
Since then, I've built an entire framework called the Anti-Boring Toolkit, and we're opening the doors to a new cohort soon. And yet, here's the irony: I had never actually studied boredom itself, the emotion and the science behind it.
Now that I have a research assistant (thank you, AI), I'm launching a series exploring what the research really says about boredom and how it applies to students.
This post is the first stop in that inquiry, which I sincerely hope will be anything but boring.
💭 Is Boredom an Emotion?
This question is what sent me down the research rabbit hole.
In one AET session, a presenter casually referred to boredom as an emotion. I found myself wondering whether that was actually true.
The answer is yes—but with nuance.
Psychologists tend to describe boredom as an affective state. That means it includes emotional experience, cognitive processing, and attentional systems all at once. Boredom shows up when attention wants to engage, but can't find a satisfying target.
Psychologist John Eastwood defines boredom as "the aversive experience of wanting, but being unable, to engage in satisfying activity."
In other words, boredom isn't emptiness. It's frustrated wanting.
💡 The Emotional Cocktail Beneath Boredom
One reason boredom is so misunderstood is that it isn't a single feeling. It's a blend of several internal experiences happening at once.
Research describes boredom as often including:
Restlessness, or the body's urge to shift attention or move.
Dissatisfaction, the sense that something feels meaningless or off.
Frustration, wanting to engage but feeling blocked.
Fatigue or apathy, the low-energy side of disengagement
Eastwood and colleagues explain that boredom arises when someone cannot successfully engage attention, becomes aware of that failure, and attributes it to the environment.
So when a student says, "I'm bored," they're not saying nothing is happening. They're saying something inside them wants to engage, and it's not working.
That distinction matters.
🎭 The Five Flavors of Boredom
Adding another layer, research by Thomas Goetz and colleagues shows that boredom comes in different forms, varying by energy level and emotional tone.
Indifferent boredom is calm and detached. The student feels disengaged but not upset. This often shows up when tasks feel too easy or predictable.
Calibrating boredom includes mild restlessness. The student knows something needs to change but isn't sure what. This is often a transition moment.
Searching boredom is more energized. The student actively wants something different and may start experimenting or distracting themselves.
Reactant boredom is charged with frustration or irritation. This often signals low autonomy or feeling forced.
Apathetic boredom is low energy and emotionally flat. This is the most concerning type and is often associated with burnout or learned helplessness.
All boredom is not the same. Treating it as one thing leads to missed opportunities for support.
🧠 What Boredom Reveals About Executive Function
From an executive function coaching lens, boredom is incredibly useful data.
When a student says "I'm bored," they may actually be saying:
This is too easy and my brain needs more challenge.
This is too hard and my brain is overloaded.
I don't feel any ownership or choice here.
Each of these reflects a mismatch between attention, meaning, and challenge.
For neurodivergent students in particular, boredom often shows up when regulation demands are high and relevance feels low. What gets labeled as a motivation issue is frequently a regulation issue instead.
Understanding boredom helps us shift from "How do I make them try harder?" to "What does their nervous system need right now?"
If this reframe is landing, you'll probably want a way to sort out motivation from the other culprits in the moment.
Is it really a motivation problem? Or could something else be the culprit?
Find out with our free Motivation Checklist, waiting for you in the library.
Check Out Our Free Library →🧰 What Educators and Coaches Can Try
Instead of trying to eliminate boredom, we can help students get curious about it.
Useful questions include:
What kind of boredom do you think this is?
Does your brain need more challenge or more clarity?
Is there a way to make this task feel more like yours?
Practical supports might include:
Offering choice within structure
Using curiosity hooks or questions to open tasks
Adding brief reset moments with clear re-entry points
Helping students track when boredom shows up and why
When students learn to work with boredom instead of fighting it, they strengthen metacognition, self-regulation, and agency.
🪞 Let's Reflect Together
Let's reflect together—because growth happens when we pause to notice what's working.
Reflection for educators:
When do I feel bored in my own teaching or coaching, and what might that signal?
How do I usually respond when students say they're bored?
What might change if I treated boredom as information instead of a problem?
Prompts for students:
How do you know boredom is showing up for you?
What's one small move you could try before your brain fully checks out?
❓ FAQ
Is boredom the same thing as laziness? No. Boredom is an emotional and cognitive signal, not a character trait. It shows up when attention wants to engage but can't find a satisfying target — often because a task is misaligned with a student's need for challenge, clarity, or autonomy.
What are the different types of boredom? Researchers identify five: indifferent, calibrating, searching, reactant, and apathetic boredom. Each has a different energy level and emotional tone, and each points to a different underlying need.
What does it mean when a student says "I'm bored" during a task? It can mean several different things: the task is too easy, the task is too hard and overwhelming, or the student doesn't feel any ownership or choice in the work. Boredom is often a stand-in for a barrier the student can't yet name.
How does boredom relate to executive function and neurodivergence? For neurodivergent students especially, boredom often appears when regulation demands are high and relevance feels low. What looks like a motivation problem is frequently a regulation or executive function issue instead.
What can educators or coaches do when a student says they're bored? Rather than trying to eliminate boredom, get curious about it. Ask what kind of boredom it might be, whether the brain needs more challenge or more clarity, and whether there's a way to build in more choice or ownership.
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