Hidden Curriculum

While reading some interesting articles about Visible Thinking, I came across an idea I’ve seen in practice but hadn’t thought much about – hidden curriculum.

The idea is while you are teaching the content – you are also teaching a specific skill. This skill might not be what the student is expecting to learn but you incorporate opportunities for them to develop it within the overall content.

There could be many different skills you are building and some ideas are:

  • Critical thinking
  • Communication
  • Collaboration
  • Participation
  • Listening

Another way to think about it is you are teaching listening skills by using the content. In this case, the skill you are developing – listening – is clear and the content is more hidden, as a secondary gain a student would learn.

Photo by Mikhail Vasilyev on Unsplash

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