Boredom in the classroom: sentiment analysis on teaching practices and outcomes

Abstract

The present work examines the relation between teachers’ teaching practices (i.e. students’ evaluations of teaching and autonomy support), students’ feelings of boredom, agentic engagement, and motivation. Participants were 225 university students (94 undergraduate students and 131 postgraduate students). The mean age was 26.16 (SD = 7.4); 78.7% women. Students’ evaluations of their teachers’ teaching were assessed with an open-ended questionnaire. Self-reported measures were used for the rest of the variables. To test the hypothesis relations, a structural equation model (SEM) was estimated. Results showed that boredom was negatively predicted by autonomy support practices (β = -.47) and positively predicted by negative sentiment towards teaching practices (β = .23). Results further showed a negative predictive value of boredom on students’ motivation and agentic engagement (β = -.46 and −.24, respectively). This work sheds light on the influence of boredom which could help in the development of training programmes for university teachers. Altogether, results also show a promising future for sentiment analysis techniques in the field of education.