What is hidden curriculum?
A hidden curriculum can be defined as the lessons that are taught
informally, and usually unintentionally, in a school system. These include
behaviors, perspectives, and attitudes that students pick up while they're at
school. This is contrasted with the formal curriculum, such as the courses and
activities students participate in (Boutelier, 2016).
It’s importance to me as a future educator:
Hidden curriculum is one aspect of teaching that I have always developed a
passion to talk about and has always been a huge emphasis of what I want in my
future teaching philosophy. As much as course content is of importance for
students to learn; if they are unable to be polite, personable and have the
necessary social skills do work effectively in a workplace or in life then it
won’t matter how much intelligence they have. I am a huge advocate for
associating course content with hidden curriculum in the class as a teacher
because students can so easily develop positive habits of being polite and
respectful to one another in the classroom which can lead to positive habits in
their future. As a future elementary school teacher, these students are in
class with you for almost as long they’re with their parents so you have many
opportunities to try to shape these students into successful well rounded
individuals within society.Past Experiences Leading to This Passion:
My father is the main reason why I have such a determination to associate
hidden curriculum into my classroom. My father always reminded me to use the
words ‘thank you’, ‘sorry’, ‘excuse me’ and even with my friend parents; I had
to call them mister or misses and then their last name until I was told
otherwise by the parent themselves. At the time I always wondered why my dad
cared so much until I got older and I started to get a rep for being a very
polite child and I had very good social skills and I would say I was quite likable. This is not being said for me to seem arrogant or cocky because I
give the credit to my father for making me develop these positive habits and
consistently giving me the reminders for such small aspects of being a
respectable person like saying ‘excuse me’. This has now made me the very
genuine and personable individual I am today and in my opinion, it has furthermore
been the reason for why I have many friends and have received many job
opportunities and being liked by my superiors.Therefore in my future teaching experiences I want to be the one who repeatedly reminds my students about using these polite terms and being respectful to one another. Even though they may get frustrated with me reminding them to do these small things all the time; gaining these positive habits to be nicer to your peers and to your elder can only lead to positive responses from these people. I am hoping that students after being in my class realize that when they’re older that fostering these positive attributes will be beneficial to being successful and respected during their lifespan and my intentions were always to guide them on the right path in life.
I focused a lot on the aspect of politeness as I feel the main thing my father taught me and one of my strength qualities is my ability to be conscious and polite to those around me in any setting but hidden curriculum can go way beyond this. Hidden curriculum will also be used in my classroom to foster positive studying habits, organization habits and even selfless acts such as helping others around you. All these habits or acts can lead to a more cooperative, inclusive and enjoyable positive environment for the students and the teacher.
Thank you for listening and I hope you enjoy because this topic and blog was fun and very personal to write about it for me!
References
Boutelier, S. (2016). Hidden
curriculum in education. Retrieved from: http://study.com/academy/lesson/hidden-curriculum-in-education-definition-examples-quiz.html
