How Science Classroom Teaching Styles May Influence Interest Scores of Different Boredom Types

Abstract

Our study deals with the application of a quantitative boredom item battery for testing the trait-boredom variable within science lessons of different classroom situations. 298 5th graders participated in this study. We monitored “mental underload”, “unused learning time” and “mental overload” by extracting four boredom types by cluster analysis which we subsequently labelled “optimally challenged”, “moderately challenged”, “reluctant” and “bored”. Our data identified 23% of our sample group as being bored during science instruction. Therefore we applied an innovative, alternative teaching style (in this case a student-centred, hands-on instruction). While Highest scores in interest and lowest ones in this new instruction generally were showed those boredom types which are associated with satisfied with science classroom situations. Our data identified 23% of our sample group as being bored during science instruction even when an innovative, alternative teaching style (in this case a student-centred, hands-on instruction) was applied. We conclude the knowledge about the described factors may substantially support science teachers to optimize their classroom efforts and to serve their students’ individual needs in science lessons.