Hidden Curriculum Essay

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The organization of teaching and further education has long been associated with the idea of a curriculum.

To start with, let us identify the word “curriculum”.

The idea of curriculum is not new – but the way we understand and theorize it has changed over the years. Different scientists have disputed over its meaning for a long time. In Latin curriculum derives from the word currere meaning ‘to run’. In such a way it stresses one of the functions of curriculum – to give a template or design which enables learning to take place.

The widely accepted classification of curricula within educational institutions is: the formal, informal and hidden curricula.
Ronald C. Doll, in his book, Curriculum Improvement: Decision Making and Process, …show more content…

) can bring to surface hidden potential of students, as well as develop it. Students who participate in extra-curriculum activities are believed to have better academic performance.

The "hidden curriculum," which refers to the kinds of learnings children derive from the very nature and organizational design of the public school, as well as from the behaviors and attitudes of teachers and administrators.... " (Longstreet and Shane, 1993). The hidden curriculum gives “hidden” academic, social, and cultural messages that are communicated to students while they are in school.

Teachers teach and students learn implicit concepts and patterns. Some of these are written in the curriculum while others are not. Teachers may not be as aware as their students that they are transmitting unwritten or hidden curriculum ideas. Students may sense it much faster because some of these ideas force them to behave in ways they do not always like. They learn quickly that they have to conform to the rules of the school if they want approval.

Being smart by nature, students get the ideas about the society, politics, relations, themselves explicitly, from the covert, taken in stride activities in

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