Yesterday morning, in the Faculty Room getting coffee, I spoke with a colleague who teaches in the Religious Studies department about the hidden curriculum of sex education. The hidden curriculum is the unstated goals or outcomes of education, such as “the transmission of norms, values, and beliefs conveyed in the classroom and the social environment.”[1]
When I taught World History to 9th graders, I was far more intentional about the hidden curriculum of that course. I knew that part of my job, in addition to teaching historical content and analysis skills, was introducing students to High School — specifically how to study and learn at a higher level. With AP Psychology… I never really thought about it.
This year, however, during one particularly sensitive topic, self-harm, I thought about the hidden curriculum more explicitly than ever before: regardless of what students may or may not need for the AP test, what did they need to know for their own lives, for those around them, and how did I want them to feel about it all?
If I had to state what my hidden curriculum for the entire course is, I guess those three points get fairly close. This is a Psychology course for 18-year olds — what do they need to know in that sphere, and how do I want them to feel about themselves?
- “Hidden Curriculum”, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hidden_curriculum. ↩