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Revealing the Hidden Curriculum in Higher Education

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Abstract

The so-called ‘hidden curriculum’ (HC) is often presented as a counterproductive element in education, and many scholars argue that it should be eliminated, by being made explicit, in education in general and specifically in higher education (HE). The problem of the HC has not been solved by the transition from a teacher-centered education to a student-centered educational model that takes the student’s experience as the starting point of learning. In this article we turn to several philosophers of education (Dewey, Kohlberg, Whitehead, Peters and Knowles) to propose that HC can be made explicit in HE when the teacher recognizes and lives his/her teaching as a personal issue, not merely a technical one; and that the students’ experience of the learning process is not merely individual but emerges through their interpersonal relationship with the teacher. We suggest ways in which this interpersonal relationship can be strengthened despite current challenges in HE.

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Notes

  1. Plato (1969) República. Madrid: Instituto de Estudios Políticos, vol. VII–VIII.

  2. For a more detailed description of these ideas, see: Lipman et al. (2002) La filosofía en el aula, Third edition. Madrid: Ediciones de la Torre pp. 31–36. And García Moriyón (2006)) Pregunto, dialogo, aprendo. Cómo hacer filosofía en el aula. Madrid: Ediciones de la Torre. p. 34.

  3. Learning to know, learning to do, learning to live together/live with others, learning to be (Delors et al. 1996).

  4. The Kolb cycle consists of 'concrete experience', 'reflective observation', 'abstract conceptualization', 'active experience’. As he was criticized for the apparent sequential mechanics implied in this cycle, he later preferred to refer to these elements as aspects.

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  1. Mind Brain Group (ICS), University of Navarra, Olite 1, Second Level, 21002, Pamplona, Navarra, Spain

    José Víctor Orón Semper

  2. Department of Management, Society and Communication, Copenhagen Business School, Dalgas Have 15, 2000, Frederiksberg, Denmark

    Maribel Blasco

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  1. José Víctor Orón Semper
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Orón Semper, J.V., Blasco, M. Revealing the Hidden Curriculum in Higher Education. Stud Philos Educ 37, 481–498 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11217-018-9608-5

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