BOREDOM AMONG FRESHMAN ENGINEERING STUDENTS IN A COMMUNICATION COURSE

Tanju Deveci

DOI Number
-
First page
261
Last page
276

Abstract


Boredom is often believed to be one of the main factors contributing to students’ disengagement in learning. Emotional and intellectual disengagement in students caused by boredom can pose a threat to teachers’ job performance too, further risking their students’ academic success. However, students’ boredom can go unnoticed, and therefore be left unresolved, which may have more detrimental effects on their aptitude for learning in the long run. Therefore, it is important to identify bored students, the reasons for their boredom, and the strategies they adopt to combat boredom. This paper reports the findings of a small-scale study conducted on boredom among 36 freshman engineering students in a communication course at the Petroleum Institute, Abu Dhabi, UAE. Data were collected using a survey, including Coping with Boredom Scales developed by Goetz and Nett (2011). The findings suggested that although boredom was not a common issue, half of the students sometimes felt bored. The most common reason for their boredom was related to their perceptions of the course nature, such as heavy work and its lack of relevance to engineering field. The most common strategy used to combat boredom was the cognitive approach. It was also found that there was a positive correlation between the students’ use of the cognitive approach and their academic performance, and a negative correlation between their use of the behavioral avoidance strategy and academic performance. The results are discussed, and suggestions are made to reduce boredom among freshman students

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References


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