Hidden Curriculum All Teachers Know

Hidden Curriculum

All teachers know that they bring something additional to the teaching environment. If they did not, we would not need teachers. We could simply write scripts for each lesson and each day, and anyone who was a reasonably good reader would be able to conduct the class. Teacher training would focus on things such as handling discipline problems but not be bothered by matters such as what factors result in what we call "good teaching."

However, except for brief forays into texts designed on programmed learning, no real attempts have been made to regiment teaching to this extent. We have attempted to add precision to teaching. This effort began in the middle 1970's when behavioral studies in business began trickling into education. W learned to set goals and objectives and to state the purpose of our instruction in clear and definite terms (Wren, 1999). This addition to educational thinking has improved education significantly. A lesson plan that has specific goals and objectives, as well as a plan for evaluating what has been learned, is a much better plan than one that says "Learn about mammals."

The effort to teach with more precision has shown us, however, that we cannot factor every possible influence into lesson plans, curricula, or school or district goals and objectives. Every teacher brings with him or her attitudes and beliefs about students and what they should and should not learn. How and what we teach is influenced by all sorts of personal traits and beliefs. In addition, schools and districts develop their own subculture. All of these factors contribute to what is call the "hidden curriculum" (Wren, 1999). This subculture includes traditions and unspoken beliefs that are passed from administration to teacher, from teacher to teacher, from student to student, and generation of classes to generation of classes (Wren, 1999).

While it is important to have concrete, carefully thought out course objectives, it is also wise for schools and teachers to examine the hidden curriculum that travels in tandem with the official plans so its effects and even appropriateness can be consciously thought about. This hidden curriculum is important because it accesses the traits that make us human. The hidden curriculum depends on social communications, the ability to infer and interpret, and the ability to apply unspoken concepts to a variety of situations (Tappan, 1998). For this reason, the hidden curriculum holds the potential to enrich as well as detract from education.

In the past, educators have recognized what we now think of as a hidden curriculum as important. When public schools were first form, educating the students in a national culture was an open and important part of the curriculum (Moore, 1997). It is easy to slip into such thinking today, but our public schools contain diverse groups of people, and in such circumstances, the hidden assumptions that support unspoken cultural beliefs in a school can unnecessarily narrow education and even alienate whole groups of students, parents and teachers.

Early in the 20th century, the value of automation had been demonstrated in business and industry, and education moved toward more regimentation in the form of more regimented curricula and statistically designed tests to measure the achievement of large groups of students (Moore, 1997). As this grew into an era emphasizing formal goals and objectives, it became easier to overlook the covert messages being taught along with the stated curricula.

Some of the beliefs that have been held in the past and that now are either rejected or question include the idea that people naturally group themselves according to such things as intelligence and social skills. This unspoken belief encouraged beliefs that separating special needs students or using tracking or ability grouping were inherently good ideas not in need of question or examination (Beyer, 2001).

Another assumption was that competition was natural and positive. This has encouraged all sorts of activities-based to a greater or lesser extent on competition that might or might not contribute to the curriculum and/or the developing needs of students (Beyer, 2001). Yet another is reflect in such statements as "That's how it's always been, and it worked OK." Sometimes people accept and adjust to situations that need to be changed because they have not fully evaluated the beliefs that support the situation (Beyer, 2001).