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Hidden Curriculum

Walden University

Hidden Curriculum

Hidden Curriculum refers to the part of the curriculum that is not always as evident. The Hidden Curriculum are the lessons that students learn without specifically being taught it. These lessons are often learned without actually teaching a lesson relating to that topic. Through Hidden Curriculum, students learn certain behavior, attitudes, and perspectives that they were not necessarily meant to learn at that time. Hidden Curriculum can be both positive and negative as they are embedded in schools and not always meant to be apparent.

In my own classroom, I have experienced positive instances of Hidden Curriculum. I work hard each week to prepare my students for their upcoming assessments and then return their graded assessment as soon as possible. This small action allows my students to see that their assessments are important, and they will affect their overall grade. There are some teachers at my school who wait to grade their students’ work until close to the time that grades are due. I believe that by returning graded assessments back to my students only a few days after they were taken, students see that their assessments and hard work matter and have an impact on their grade. Henson states, “Teachers who always return tests promptly and follow up on all homework assignments silently communicate to their students that these activities are important,” (Henson, 2015 , p. 15).

A negative side to Hidden Curriculum has occurred a few times this year in my classroom and school. My school tends to focus on creating challenging assessments for students with the expectation that all students can perform on the same level. On the other side, there are assessments in which students merely receive a participation grade or a notebook check, which ends up fluffing their grades and making it seem that every student is high-performing. With these assessments, all students receive a good grade if they did work of some sort. This type of Hidden Curriculum negatively affects students, schools, and teachers, because it makes it seem that students are performing at a higher level than they truly are.

To repair the negative effects of using assessments that do not truly assess a students’ ability, I plan to give more assessments that truly depict how each student can perform and provide assessments that challenge each student to be the best learner that they can be. I plan to be the teacher that will “hound their students until they turn in their assignments,” (Henson, 2015, p. 15). Although I still have to give students assessments in which they only seem to receive a participation or completion grade, I plan to add more assessments that can accurately portray what each students’ performance ability is like. I want my students to understand that the assessments matter and that the best they can do is to try their best.

As I move forward, I plan to incorporate more examples of positive Hidden Curriculum within my own classroom. I have found that my students often look to me and follow the examples I set for them. I want my students to know that education is important, no matter what age or grade they are in. I plan to show my students the importance of education my showing them that I am continuing my education further than a bachelor’s degree in college so that I learn all that I can and be the best teacher for each of them. I aim to become a teacher that works hard at “letting their students know that their teachers are readers and lifelong learners,” (Henson, 2015, p. 15).

I plan to use Hidden Curriculum to show my students that learning is important and that each one of them is special in their own way. I will show my students that even though they are different from each other and are at different points with their own learning than their neighbor, each one of them matters and can make a difference. To do this, I will incorporate more technology within my classroom so that I can meet the diverse learning needs of all my students.

From there, I will differentiate the use of technology so that it becomes personal to each one of them and gives them a way to become lifelong learners themselves (Laureate Education, 2015). By differentiating technology for each of my students, they realize that they are all special and can be devoted to learning in different ways.

Hidden Curriculum refers to the lessons that our students learn in school even if the lesson is not geared toward that particular topic. Each student gets something different out of each lesson and Hidden Curriculum can be used in a positive way to encourage them, support them, and help them see the world around them in a different light.

References

Henson, K. T. (2015). Curriculum planning: Integrating multiculturalism, constructivism, and

education reform (5^th ed.). Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press.

Laureate Education. (2016). Diversity Proficiencies. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu/bbcswebdav/institution/USW1/201840_04/1_Standard_D ocuments/1_Current_Documents/MSED/MSED_RWRCOEL_Diversity_Proficiencies.pd

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Laureate Education. (2015). Technology Proficiency. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu/bbcswebdav/institution/USW1/201840_04/1_Standard_D ocuments/1_Current_Documents/MSED/MSED_RWRCOEL_Technology_Proficiencies. pdf

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