Differentiate Between Official and Hidden Curriculum
INTRODUCTION
The curriculum word is of Latin language. It means ‘race course’. In education it means ‘work field of students’ or race course of the students. It consist of two words-race and course. The word ‘course’ mean curriculum and race refers student’s experiences and activities. A teacher performs his teaching activities in view of curriculum.
The new concept of curriculum is very broad based. It consists of the totality of experience that pupil receives through the manifold activities that go on in the school, in the classroom, library, laboratory, workshop and play-ground and in the numerous contacts between the teachers and pupils. It is neither dogmatic nor rigid in its form and structure. It is neither uniform nor standardised to conform to a prescribed pattern. It is characterised by variety and flexibility and it’s tailored to the needs of the students at different age levels. It gives the students an increasing awareness of the environment around them so that they may fit in more definitely in the milieu of community life. It thus secures more integrated group relations. The secondary education commission has also pointed out clearly the nature and conception of the desired curriculum: “It must be clearly understood that, according to subject the best educational thought, “curriculum does not mean only the academic experience that a child receives at school. In this sense, the whole life of the school becomes the curriculum which can tough the life of the students at all points and help in the evolution of a balanced personality.”
Curriculum is, therefore, something which is related to the life and the needs of the pupils of different age levels. It includes both what they should learn and also Shaw they should learn it. It includes all the experiences interaction between and among many people; many influences affect its quality and may material conditions affect its functioning.
DIFFERENTIATE BETWEEN OFFICIAL AND HIDDEN CURRICULUM
Official curriculum gives the basic lesson plan to be followed, including objectives, sequence, and materials. This provides the basis for accountability. While, hidden curriculums are 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.
Official curriculum takes place within educational institutions, whereas, hidden curriculum can take place inside or outside educational institutions.
Official curriculum gives the basic lesson plan to be followed, including objectives, sequence, and materials. This provides the basis for accountability. While, hidden curriculums are 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.
Hidden curriculum is a concept that describes the often unarticulated and unacknowledged things that students are taught in school and is an important issue in the sociological study of how schools generate social inequality. The official curriculum provides a more holistic approach in ensuring that students’ cognitive, psychological and behavioural traits are taken into consideration when devising a curriculum. The hidden curriculum although unintended usually facilitates the transmission of beliefs with affect how students make decisions regarding their life. This curriculum provides students with a voice in the classroom and does not follow a systematic and deliberate approach to teaching and learning.
The hidden curriculum encompasses such an enquiry approach where students must create their own learning experiences rather than relying on the teacher for strict guidance. Such guidance is usually systematic and deliberate and falls within the formal curriculum and subsequently does not teach the value of independence or any other life skill. What usually happens is where student’s thoughts are merely those of the teacher.
The un-planned curriculum cannot be used in isolation from the formal curriculum. Hidden curriculum “emphasized skills such as learning to wait quietly, patiently, exercising restraint, completing work, cooperating with others, being punctual and respecting peer differences”. These features clearly had nothing to do with educational goals. These educational goals were always covered in the planned curriculum and neglect the inculcation of life skills that would promote social change and conformity, preventing any state of anomie (normlessness) in schools and mainstream society.
Differentiate Between Official and Hidden Curriculum
CONCLUSION
In a nutshell, curriculum is the planned programme of objectives, content, learning experiences, resources and assessment offered by a school. This dimension of the formal curriculum is the most straightforward and easiest to take into account. In the course we saw that the formal curriculum encompasses a wide variety of potential educational and instructional practices, which we are able to implement in our classroom.
To take the formal curriculum into account teachers will usually plan lessons encompassing as much of the formal curriculum as possible. In my experience this includes planning my own lessons and selecting teaching strategies and materials as well as activities that will help my students achieve the necessary learning experiences that are expected.
REFERENCES
Nwiyi, G.U. (2009). Quality Assurance and Curriculum implementation in secondary schools in Port Harcourt. Multidisciplinary Journal of Research Development,12 (2) 159-165.
Obanya, P. (2007). Thinking and talking education, Ibadan: Evans brothers Nigeria publishers Ltd.
Stenhouse, A. J. 2015). Issues in Curriculum Development. Lagos: T. Richard Nigeria Ltd.
