PERCEIVED ACADEMIC CONTROL AND ACHIEVEMENT: THE MEDIATING ROLE OF BOREDOM DURING ONLINE TEACHING

The transition to online teaching due to the pandemic provides optimal conditions for analyzing the complexity of cognitive assessments in the context of education. Perceived academic control (PAC) allows students to recognize their responsibilities in online learning and achieve better learning outcomes. This study aimed to examine whether the experience of boredom in online teaching can be a mediator in the relationship between PAC and academic achievement of pupils and university students. The sample consisted of 18 pupils and 111 university students, 30% male and 70% female, aged between 18 and 29 (M = 21.41; SD = 2.45), who attended online classes during the second year of the pandemic. The results of the study confirmed the hypothesis that the experience of boredom in online teaching is a statistically significant mediator in the relationship between academic control and average grade (b = .192, 95% CI [.073, .347]). Still, this mediation is partial, because the direct effect between academic control and grade point average remains significant (b = .323, 95% CI [.111, .536]). Also, PAC is associated with pupils’ and university students’ academic achievement, and this connection is mediated by emotions related to teaching. Boredom in the classroom is closely associated with low PAC, resulting in lower academic achievement. We can conclude that pupils and university students more often perceive learning as boring due to the inability to control teaching activities in the research conducted during the pandemic, which may be in correlation with poorer achievements. Given the probability that online teaching will continue, implications for research and practice as well as future research opportunities are discussed. Keywords: online teaching, COVID-19, perceived academic control, boredom, achievement