I know my DD never verbalized the connection between boredom and behavior and it probably could have made her life better if she had.
I don't know whether she was unaware of the link between the behaviors and boredom, I just don't think she realized that there was any potential for change in her school environment, so she dealt with it the best way she could - which just got interpreted by the school (and I'm afraid to say myself for a while) as laziness, passive-aggressiveness, rudeness, spaciness etc. She was very quiet and shy so instead of acting up in the way you describe, she would just bring books and read through her classes and then shrug her shoulders with "I don't know" being her only response when asked why she didn't turn in her work etc.
