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.
Anecdotal accounts from teachers have long suggested the possibility that
virtual teaching experiences have a positive impact on face-to-face teaching practices, a so-called "reverse impact" phenomenon. Survey and focus
group data collected as part of a statewide evaluation of a virtual school
offered an opportunity to explore this impact. Findings from a study of
teacher perceptions indicate that three quarters of teachers who teach in
both virtual and traditional environments felt that virtual experiences
improved their practice in face-to-face classrooms. The authors discuss
three types of impact reflected in teacher comments and discuss tentative
implications for teacher preparation programs and for bolstering the rationale for using technology in education. (
In this qualitative case study of one teacher moving from face-to-face to online teaching, I explore how such teachers' subjectivities change within online teaching spaces. I do so by contrasting identity and subjectivity and then analyzing my participant's relationships with colleagues, her teaching practice, and her descriptions of her own work and identity. I suggest that ultimately online teaching spaces may be important potential sites for the demarginalization of ciswomen, transgender, and gender queer teachers.
This paper reviews recent studies on the relationship of classroom life to larger social/political institutions. It analyzes the phenomenon which Philip Jackson has identified as the "hidden curriculum", that covert pattern of socialization which prepares students to function in the existing workplace and in other social/political spheres. The authors argue that this pattern has been largely ignored by social studies curriculum developers. By ignoring the values contained in the social processes of schooling, social studies developers failed to influence school programs in a fundamental way. To promote a more complete understanding of the dynamics of classroom life and its relationship to the larger society, the authors have identified social processes of school and classroom life which give specific meaning to the term hidden curriculum. They argue that a new set of processes will have to replace existing ones if the goals of social education are to be realized. In the latter part of the paper, a new set of social processes are described which could form the basis for a new and more progressive approach to social studies instruction.
Computer technologies and computer-mediated information and communication are increasingly parts of curriculum-making practices in education. These technologies are often taken to be simply tools to be used to enhance teaching and learning. However, in recent years, a range of cross-disciplinary studies have started to point to the work of code, algorithms and standards in selecting and shaping the information, forms of knowledge and modes of interaction available to teachers and students. Concerns have been raised about how data is selected, shaped and represented by software in ways which are not always apparent to those using computer technologies. In this sense, software can be considered as part of the hidden curriculum of education. Drawing upon the increasing research in software studies, this article explores theoretically some of the issues raised in relation to curriculum-making practices and possible lines of empirical research to be pursued.
Many higher education institutions are either offering
online courses or are planning such initiatives. Critics
argue that college and university administrators are
forcing online courses upon students and professors as
cost-saving measures, and at some universities students have expressed discontentment with online
course initiatives (Jaffee, 1998; Noble, 1998). Others
are wondering aloud if online courses are in fact the
answer to challenges such as rapid tuition increases
and a changing student body (Feenberg, 1999; Hara
& Kling, 2000; Rahm & Reed, 1998).
The concept of the hidden curriculum rarely has been
applied to distance education, though the related discipline
of educational technology frequently has been accused of
hiding a multitude of agendas.
This report sets out to help decision makers in higher education institutions gain a better understanding of the phenomenon of Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) and trends towards greater openness in higher education and to think about the implications for their institutions. The phenomena of MOOCs are described, placing them in the wider context of open education, online learning and the changes that are currently taking place in higher education at a time of globalisation of education and constrained budgets
As higher education (HE) undergoes a massive expansion in demand in most countries across the globe and experiences financial pressures, the sector is evolving rapidly. Market pressures encourage the search for additional income and new forms of provision, and online programme management (OPM) companies are increasingly entering the sector as they identify market opportunities.
As a longtime faculty member at a major research institution and now an executive academic officer at an OPM, I believe faculty are the richest resource for preserving an institution's core values, especially in times of intense change.
Personalisation of e-learning environments is an interesting research area in which the learning
experience of learners is generally believed to be improved when his or her personal learning
preferences are taken into account. One such learning preference is the V-A-K instrument that
classifies learners as visual, auditory or kinaesthetic. In this research, the outcomes of an
experiment are described after students in the second year of university were exposed to a unit
that was redesigned to fit in the V-A-K learning styles.
Open online courses are becoming more prevalent at local level and for and professional
development objectives. Proper instructional design combined with use of online tools can
promote learner interaction in online environments. Using the Community of Inquiry (CoI)
framework, this study aimed at examining learners' interaction and their perceptions of teaching
presence, social presence, and cognitive presence in an open online course offered for
professional development in three Swedish universities
Social presence, the ability to perceive others in an online environment, has been shown to impact student motivation and participation, actual and perceived learning, course and instructor satisfaction, and retention in online courses; yet very few researchers have attempted to look across contexts, disciplinary areas, or measures of social presence.
This study focused on nursing student perceptions of sense of community in the online classroom. Using qualitative analysis of data gathered from five student focus groups, themes related to the affective domain in online learning were identified: aloneness, anonymity, nonverbal communication, trepidations, and unknowns. This article provides detailed examples of student experiences under each theme and suggests that greater attention to the affective domain is needed, particularly in asynchronous online learning. Pedagogical strategies that foster a sense of community in online courses between students and faculty enhance cognition through affective engagement of students. Strategies for instructors are given.
'Openness' is a central contested value of modern liberalism that falls under different political, epistemological and ethical descriptions. In this chapter, we employ 'openness' to analyze the spatialization of learning and education. We discuss dimensions of openness and 'open education' (Peters & Britez, 2008), beginning with a brief history of openness in education that focuses on the concept of the Open University as it first developed in the United Kingdom during the 1960s, a development we dub Open University 1.0.
This article outlines a collaborative study between higher education institutions in Australia, which qualitatively explored the online learning experience for undergraduate and postgraduate students. The project adopted a narrative inquiry approach and encouraged students to story their experiences of this virtual environment, providing a snapshot of how learning is experienced by those undertaking online studies.
Online learning is now a common practice in higher education. Because of the continued growth in enrollments, higher educational institutions must prepare faculty throughout their teaching tenure for learning theory, technical expertise, and pedagogical shifts for teaching in the online environment. This study presents best practices for professional development for faculty teaching online.
A systematic search of the research literature from 1996 through July 2008 identified more than
a thousand empirical studies of online learning. Analysts screened these studies to find those that
(a) contrasted an online to a face-to-face condition, (b) measured student learning outcomes, (c)
used a rigorous research design, and (d) provided adequate information to calculate an effect
size. As a result of this screening, 50 independent effects were identified that could be subjected
to meta-analysis.