Defining 'curriculum', students' understanding of the curriculum, and what we mean by the 'hidden' curriculum. Defining 'curriculum' Defining 'curriculum' is a challenging and contested task, as there have been many different conceptual, philosophical, and ideological understandings of educational purpose linked to the term.This journal article, The curriculum? That’s just a unit outline, isn’t it? (16 pages), examines variations in perceptions of the curriculum and explores the assumptions that underpin them. The findings indicate the curriculum is conceptualised as follows:The structure and content of a unit (subject);The structure and content of a programme of study;The students’ experience of learning;A dynamic and interactive process of teaching and learning.The findings also highlight that academics associate different meanings with the word. As such, the authors note the importance of developing a shared language and understanding about curriculum to help with effective curriculum development.In this THE Campus blog post, Shaping a curriculum framework: the fundamental principles (2022), Adrian Lam outlines a list of fundamental principles for consideration when shaping a curriculum framework, including situating learning in the real world, offering flexibility and adaptation for diverse student needs, and finding balance between breadth and depth.This book chapter by Kate O’Connor (2022), Understanding Curriculum in Higher Education, helpfully lays out the different conceptual approaches of how the term 'curriculum' has been understood as an object of inquiry by educational researchers. Curriculum conceptualisation in the Curriculum Transformation Programme Curriculum Conceptualisations and The University of Edinburgh (11 pages): In this briefing paper for the University's Curriculum Transformation Programme, Professor Cathy Bovill provides an overview of the way curriculum is defined and conceptualised. She then discusses the paper with Professor Iain Gordon in the following Paper Discussion video (7 mins) below: Professor Cathy Bovill and Professor Iain Gordon discuss a briefing paper for the University's Curriculum Transformation Programme Students' understanding of 'curriculum' This project summary, Student views of curriculum (3 pages), provides an overview of the findings from a Curriculum Transformation Programme research project that considered student views of the curriculum. The findings indicate that for many students the curriculum is impersonal; something which is 'done' to them. Students’ emphasis on content and structure echo staff definitions of curriculum, and there were vast differences in the level of agency students experienced in relation to the curriculum.In this ENGAGE event video - How do students define and relate to the curriculum? Findings from a recent study at The University of Edinburgh (42 mins) - students and staff discuss:What do students understand the term 'curriculum' to mean?What role do they consider themselves to have in relation to the curriculum?What role would they like to have? Video of ENGAGE network event - How do students define and relate to the curriculum? Findings from a recent study at The University of Edinburgh. The 'hidden' curriculum The term ‘hidden curriculum’ is, put simply, all those things that we teach that aren’t written down explicitly in course and programme documents. It refers to certain implicit ‘rules of the game’ that higher education students are presumed to have, but are not part of the written curriculum, such as morals, norms, gender roles, and power hierarchies. Below are a few resources to help you understand the hidden curriculum in relation to your teaching:In this Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education resource, Unpacking your Hidden Curriculum: A Guide for Educators (3 pages), the authors highlight some of these unspoken rules and processes that contribute to the hidden curriculum in an attempt to encourage educators to think about what this means, and to help us consider how to overcome these invisible barriers which students need to navigate.Dr Neil Speirs, a Widening Participation manager, practitioner and researcher at The University of Edinburgh, introduces the concept of the hidden curriculum, how we may be complicit in it, and what we can do about it in a Teaching Matters Podcast episode: The Hidden Curriculum and its impact on working-class students (28 minutes), in a blog post: Let’s talk about the hidden curriculum and classism on campus, and in a video presentation: IAD Hangout: Reflections on the Hidden Curriculum and its Impact on Working Class Students.‘Critical approaches to the hidden curriculum with hybrid learning in Music’: This presentation by Eli Appleby-Donald and Dr Nikki Moran from The University of Edinburgh Learning and Teaching Conference 2020, highlights how to critically think about the hidden curriculum in course design. This article was published on 2024-11-06
