Do You Teach the Hidden Curriculum in Higher Education?

[Symphonie]

Someone recently introduced me to the term hidden curriculum. For anyone else who isn’t already familiar, I’ll save you the step of Googling – I already did that. 

There’s a handy resource from Boston University about the hidden curriculum that says that the hidden curriculum is “an amorphous collection of implicit academic, social, and cultural messages, unwritten rules and unspoken expectations, and unofficial norms, behaviours and values of the dominant-culture context in which all teaching and learning is situated.” It’s all of those unacknowledged things students encounter at school.

I was grateful to finally have a name for something I experienced at each stage of my educational journey — grade school, undergraduate, and graduate school. 

I also learned that Increasingly educators are trying new things to help students navigate the hidden curriculum. I’d love to know…

1. Do you teach the hidden curriculum?
2. How do you help your students learn those often unarticulated things about higher education?
3. Why do you think it’s important to consider the hidden curriculum?
4. What do you wish educators, courseware providers, textbook authors, administrators, parents, policymakers, and hiring managers knew about the hidden curriculum?

[Mathew]

The hidden curriculum issue is especially relevant for my courses since many of my students are international. The textbooks are full of hidden curricula and Western biases. I try to teach from the perspective of the Global South. This approach upends many of the assumptions of the hidden curriculum. For instance, one cannot teach about poverty and inequality globally without addressing the legacies of colonialism. The same is true about global conflicts. Neoclonialism lies at the root of global instability. Police violence in the US cannot be understood without knowing the historical roots of policing here, rooted in slave patrol. Understanding issues in global/colonial/postcolonial contexts makes learning an eye-opening experience. 

[Baba]

Interesting! They are all connected.

[mdahari]

1. Do you teach the hidden curriculum?

Yes, I try to incorporate as much of the "hidden curriculum" as possible. This is important to me as a fist year biology educator. Student's are coming in from high school and may not have an understanding or guidelines on how to be a citizen of diverse a university campus. This includes messages surrounding academic integrity, metacognitive skills, EDI appropriate behaviour etc.

2. How do you help your students learn those often unarticulated things about higher education?

Some of these expectations are explicitly articulated in the course syllabus or spoken directly in lectures/seminars. Building and reinforcing "non academic skills", awareness and reflection is done through various assessments where student's may think they are just writing a paper about "X" but the assignment instructions contain a method or language that links to aspects of the hidden curriculum. I also try to use iclicker in seminars to engage students in discussions and interactions about topics such as academic integrity, time management skills, problem solving, indigenous ways of living, campus conflicts and so on. The goal setting and reflection tool in Achieve is a great method to help students learn and focus on some of these aspects of higher education. I am looking forward to incorporating this into my course in the fall.

3. Why do you think it's important to consider the hidden curriculum? 

it is critical to consider the hidden curriculum because these students are not just attending university to learn specific degree related content and technical skills, they are learning an entirely new way of being, thinking and existing in the world. They are citizens of a new social network and academic community that is most likely more diverse and complex than high school. Helping students navigate this transition, while strengthening metacognition and vital soft skills (such as time management problem solving, organization etc.) is truly important  as our roles as educators to help build a more resilient and prepared future generation. 

4. What do you wish educators, courseware providers, textbook authors, administrators, parents, policymakers, and hiring managers knew about the hidden curriculum?

I wish  educators, courseware providers, textbook authors, administrators, parents, policymakers, and hiring managers knew the importance of the hidden curriculum and that teaching it doesn't come secondary to specific course content or technical skills. That understanding and mastering skills taught from the hidden curriculum are broadly used to succeed in life overall and transcend far beyond the classroom and/or jobs in their given field. 

[anorbutus]

I definitely teach a hidden curriculum - one for students to become better students for their entire education, not just in STEM. For example, I have a hidden curriculum of problem-solving, critical-thinking, timeliness, deadlines, ethics, etc. A few years ago, my hidden curriculum would have included no late work accepted to teach the importance of maintaining a schedule, planning ahead, and adhering to deadlines so that students are more prepared for the professional world. But during the pandemic, as well as after a reflection of do I have a right to "grade" and potentially penalize a hidden curriculum, I started accepting late work and lowering the point penalty for late work, as I decided my role as a STEM educator was to educate them on the learning outcomes that are required in my course, and I didn't want my late policy (or lack thereof) to be a bottle neck on any students' education. I now accept late work, because although I still need students to know information at specific times throughout the course, I'd rather they learn it sometime versus never. With regards to ethics, I try to incorporate lessons about doing your own work (no cheating), taking the time to show their work as a part of the process of learning, or in lab, the curriculum of data collection and assessment with a hidden curriculum about lab ethics (e.g. notebook maintenance, choosing not to falsify data versus "borrowing" someone else's a more accurate data, etc.)

I will never fully erase this hidden curriculum of study skills, schedule management, etc., as I believe if they pick something up in my class regarding these key study skills and soft skills, then not only will they perform better in my class, they will become stronger students overall for the rest of their academic careers (and beyond).

So I use a study module in my LMS as well as a study review in the first week of class to help students learn those soft skills, and through Achieve, I now incorporate the Student Surveys in Achieve, so that students can reflect upon their individual study habits and gain exposure to what may be a new-to-them method of learning/studying. 

What I wish everyone knew about the hidden curriculum - that's tough.  I wish administrators knew the delicate balancing act they have burdened educators with. On one side, educators are supposed to only teach to the defined learning outcomes (e.g. follow the structured course outline), but then we are also supposed to be student-centered educators, where educators are expected to imbue students with opportunities to be come stronger students, better peers, more adept adults after matriculation. As for textbook authors and courseware providers, it would be wonderful if there were more soft-skill/hidden-curriculum focused tools and assignments could be made available to educators and students, without being discipline-specific. 

[TobySaunders]

1. I don't understand the question. Are you asking if I teach about the hidden curriculum, or are you asking if use the hidden curriculum? I teach biology, so, no, I don't teach about it. Do I use it? Well, I'm reading about the hidden curriculum on your Boston University link and I'm seeing things like, "students will arrive on time to class". So, yes. Yes, I require students to arrive on time to class. Who doesn't? "Our expectations, assumptions, beliefs, and suppositions, thus, may not be fair or even valid.", it says. Okay, but let's not paint with too broad a brush. Expecting students at an accredited public university in the USA to use English and show up on time is perfectly valid. What is the alternative? I'm sorry that some students aren't prepared for college, but it's a step too far to imply that we're wrong to hold students to expectations like showing up on time and being fluent in English. The link says that we should promote equity in the classroom. I agree with the linguist John McWhorter about that concept. Equality is good. Equity, however, is too often used to mean "everyone has the same outcome", and that if everyone doesn't have the same outcome, then the system is wrong. I could hardly disagree more with that notion of equity. We should be holding students to high standards; not cursing ourselves when different students have different outcomes. 

2. I told two students recently that there is a Writing Center. They turned in a project that was written poorly, and I told them that public school aren't preparing students properly, but that our university Writing Center is there to help them. Something like 30% of Americans are writing at grade level when they graduate from high school. That is a broad failure. What can I do about that indeed? “Social systems work against entire groups of people to maintain the unequal distribution of opportunity, wealth, and justice"? That claim is becoming less true in Western society in practically  every passing moment, and it currently reads to me more like a Marxist conspiracy theory than a sensible sociological claim. Why should wealth be distributed equally? Why shouldn't people's wealth reflect their work and talent? My penalizing students who don't show up on time isn't me working against an entire group of people to maintain the unequal distribution of wealth. Come on. That kind of Marxist thought has indeed spread through most of the Humanities, but, again, I could hardly disagree with it more. 

3. It's important to consider "the hidden curriculum" (yes, I am now using scare quotes) insofar as some students are not college-ready. I can only do so much though. Emailing a legal-adult and telling him, "You've not being turning in assignments, but that's because the system is working against you to maintain an unequal distribution of resources. As an ally and member of the bourgeoisie ruling class, I feel obligated to let you, a disadvantaged person of the proletariat, know that you should turn your assignments in.", isn't in the cards for me. I'm a sympathetic person. My parents were immigrants (who were illegal for a time) and I was first generation college student, but they spoke fluent English and instilled in me through good parenting the importance of showing up on time and doing assignments. Actually, come to think of it, I was a pretty bad student at university for a good while there! I messed up until I got my academic life together! I learned the hard way.

4. I wish that they knew that the existence of semi-literate, tardy, and undedicated students doesn't mean that a system is working against those students necessarily. We're talking about culture problems here, largely. Nigerians are one of the most successful ethnic groups in America. They're better educated and wealthier than whites, and they're arrested less often per capita. The same goes for east Asians. These are people "of color", as the some people choose to call them these days. Many immigrants "of color" do better than native-born Americans. So the system is stacked in favor of the Nigerians and Koreans, right? And it's working against the trailer park kids from Appalachia, right? No. It's largely to do with kids being lucky enough to have been raised well, and/or to have been blessed with good genes. I cannot become a social worker. I can tell students about the Writing Center, and I can show them that they get penalized for showing up 30 minutes late to class. "We must conduct ongoing informal assessments of our most vulnerable students’ understandings by checking in with them individually since they may be reluctant to pose what they presume are “stupid” questions in the larger group. Otherwise, those with more familiarity of the hidden curriculum due to demographic circumstances may gain an unfair advantage."? That's the solution? Okay, I'll try, Symphonie. I already submit alerts when students are academically struggling, but there isn't a whole lot that I can do beyond holding students to high standards and being clear about expectations. There isn't a hidden curriculum in my classrooms. It's out in the open. 

[JRStueckle]

As a R1, land grant institution, freshmen come to my University and are piled into large lectures with 250 students.  These students don't know how to manage their time, how to study, where to buy a scantron, how to access their email or even where my office is located or what office hours are.  I sneak all of these essential elements into the lecture material for the first general biology exam.  The most effective strategy are the study tips that are randomly distributed among all the lectures leading up to the first exam.  The study tips are short, novel ways to study such as make an appointment with yourself (i.e. schedule study time for each class), explain it to mom, a roommate or a pet, or how to use a study guide.  One minute we are learning about density-dependent factors and the next slide I have a 30 second study tip!  My objective is to eliminate the idea that reading the book multiple times is effective studying. 

Again, I have 250-seat, non-major Biology lectures.  I want to show my students that we can learn outside the classroom.  We can learn by doing.  And the community needs us and wants us to be a part of the town.  I involve my students in engaged scholarship.  We meet elementary students at local streams and creeks and my students teach the younger students the ecological concepts they themselves just learned in class.  It is an amazing connection to watch my students utilize the knowledge that they have learned and communicate it to the next generation.

[JDuncan]

As a composition instructor at an access college, I certainly teach the hidden curriculum.  For most students, the required composition class is a first introduction to college classes and, ultimately, how college works and how it fits into their lives.  I find that the hidden curriculum differs based on the two types of students I most often encounter.

The recent high school graduate has to learn how college differs from high school.  This has become increasingly more difficult following the pandemic (though I know we are all tired of hearing that).  High schools were left in an untenable situation where they certainly could not fail whole classes who were left behind, and I don't blame them for the choices they had to make about when to accept work or even what quality they accepted; however, those students have to be taught the expectations of completing work on schedule, attending class, being proactive about their educational needs, and, honestly, even following directions.  All of these things are not only essential for success in my class, but for future employment success.

My other type of student is one trying to balance college with jobs and children.  For them, their work ethic is not in question, but they have to be taught how to balance their lives, how to set reasonable expectations for how many classes they can take, how much time they can actually dedicate to those classes, and how to give themself grace when things don't work out as planned.  It's that work/life balance we all strive for.

Add to these challenges the fact that I teach online, and I also have to teach students things like how to properly communicate via email, how to set up alerts on their phone's calendar, how to save and attach a file, etc.  None of these are part of my course, but they're all part of my class.

In terms of designing assignments, I find myself trying to anticipate all potential roadblocks or assumptions an assignment may include and design to avoid those.  I find using the TILT assignment model a successful tool for this.  By connecting the assignment to prior learning (whether in class or life) and laying out every step of the process in detail, I try to avoid assuming that they know HOW to do the assignment.  The principle of Transparency in Teaching and Learning is essential for creating a level playing field for students who may otherwise be left behind because they don't know what they need to know to even get started. I also find it necessary to set up moments where students must ask me questions so that they start to think about how to ask for the help that they need.

As educators, most of us work in a field that interested us, came easy to us, and just clicked.  This means it can sometimes be more difficult for us to unpack how we know what we know about initially approaching our subject matter, but it's essential that we do so in order to actually teach our students how to get ready to learn the new information.

[monroe117]

Yes, I do teach the “hidden curriculum”. As a professor who solely teaches neurodiverse students I try to consistently remind students about the resource they can access. I find that students can struggle with the concept of office hours. I start every class discussing the ways in which students what office hours are and how they can take advantage of them. It is important to know about hidden curriculum, because if a student doesn’t understand how to navigate the educational framework, then they are less likely to be successful academically. Every instructor has subtle differences for how they administer their courses and it is important to clearly communicate these differences to students (even if they may seem obvious). Having to adapt to different environments takes away from students’ cognitive load, which means that students have less cognitive ability to dedicate to learning new material. I think it is important to educators to regularly remind students about their resources. Reviewing course policies and syllabi at the beginning of the semester is not enough, because there is a lot of new material being presented. Many students are not likely to pay attention to resources, until they are in need of those resources. I have seen some textbook authors include suggestions for navigating classes at the beginning of their books and I think that is a great way to help students learn the “hidden curriculum”.