Revealing the "Hidden" Curriculum

As students head back to school or arrive on college campuses for the first time, they are being inundated with tips (25, 10, 42, 50, 36). Some time ago, I wrote about "noncognitive" contributions to college success and these contributions dovetail nicely into the so called hidden curriculum. These are the things that you won't find in the hundreds of tips provided earlier. This curriculum is a side-effect of the practices and principles of primary and secondary education that are not necessarily aimed to be taught.

So in case you feel like you missed something in high school here are the hidden aspects of learning that may help you in college:

• Be comfortable reaching out for help and support. Most colleges have Writing Centers, Supplemental Instruction, Teachers Assistants, Lab Assistants, Library Instruction, Offices for Disabilities, Mental Health Centers, Alumni and Employment services and many more. These centers serve to support and enhance your experiences both in- and outside of the classroom.
• Every time you attend a new class, even if its with a professor that you've had before, the rules may be different. That means different cultural norms, different cultural expectations, and different teaching pedagogies.

As I started to write on this particular topic, I've started to notice that its difficult, if not impossible to write about one hidden curriculum as it is affected by the particular norms, expectations and values of any given institution. So instead I'll give a few other unmentioned tips:

• Focus on fewer but more engaging opportunities. In other words, do more with less. You don't need to be a part of every club on campus or every service opportunity. Focus on the opportunities where you can be more than a passive participant and see what opportunities you can become a leader in. This also means starting early. Most campuses have activity fairs early in the first semester. See my advice immediately below and try a number of things, but then focus on the ones that seem to be the most interesting/helpful.
• Don't be afraid to try new things, but also know when to give up and focus on others.
• Ask questions. This gives you perspective. The more questions you can ask from the more people, the better you can understand where you are and why.
• There's much more to classes in college, but doing well in classes set a baseline for your ability to take full advantage after college
• Some opportunities you'll have are unique, take them if they compete with common activities.
• You'll be pushed an pulled in new directions. Some of your values, beliefs and thought processes will be challenged. How you handle these challenges will likely be some of your most formative experiences. This is likely the point that hits closest to the "hidden curriculum". Those who are best able to pick up on the beliefs, practices and values of a place and adopt them position themselves to succeed. However, those who either aren't able to pick up on the practices or for whom the beliefs and values don't line up with their own will have problems. A challenge we see across college campuses today is how students are trying to bring their college's values/beliefs in line with their own. Should students just accept that they can't change colleges and survive/bear the mismatch for four years or should they attempt to work with colleges to have the colleges slowly adapt/change. Change will take more than 1 year/4 years which is frustrating for students, but changing an institution engrained in beliefs/values stretching back decades, centuries and millennia (when we look at college more generally), shaping an institution to a new image will take time. Poor and lazy advice is to grin an bear it. Equally poor advice is to look for complete revolution. The most useful and beneficial advice is to find the areas most ripe for change and focus on those. I'll call this the Ship of Theseus revolution, because while the overall ship stays the same, the pieces its made of are replaced slowly over time.
• Take advantage of everything a college has to offer. As I said above, there are tons of support services but these services and others are meant to prepare you for your future. Apply for grants/fellowships/internships and other opportunities. Work with alumni and other outward facing offices. Choose employment that can give you the skills necessary for your future employment. Take advantage of the subsidized entertainment on campus.

As I first started to look into the hidden curriculum, I was under the assumption that there was going to be a certain set of ideas that were meant to be communicated, but were just never explicitly mentioned. So while I can't reveal a particular curriculum, the best advice I can give is to ask questions and then ask you to think (and act), how will you handle being in an environment that may not line up with your beliefs, values and expectations.