HIDDEN CURRICULUM AND TEACHER’S IMPLICIT THEORIES AS DETERMINANTS OF THE EDUCATIONAL PROCESS

Abstract

Curriculum, as an important school documenmt, has been the subject of numerous research and discussions in the process of education and moral education. As far as curriculum is concerned, it is necessary that the notion of hidden curriculum be explained as well. The latter is defined as a discrepancy between what is implied by the official curriculum and what actually happens in school. For that reason, hidden curriculum may significantly affect the quality of educational process, given that it concerns the overall environment in which studying takes place. Bearing in mind the fact that it is teachers who are responsable for the implementation of curriculum, they are expected to transfer to students all those values that the formal curriculum does not recognise. This transfer is mostly facilitated through implicit messages, which often go undetected by either teachers or students. The teachers’ implicit theory represents the beliefs and attitudes of a teacher about the way a teacher perceives their students, what learning theory they apply, and how they view childhood. In this respect, hidden curriculum becomes an integral part of the teachers’ implicit theory. In a student-oriented teaching process, the teacher still holds the central position, so one can draw a conclusión that their implicit theory is crucial for the realisation of goals of education and moral education. The results of relevant research confirm the hypothesis that hidden curriculum can exert more influence than the official curriculum. In view of the contemporary paradigm of life[1]long learning, the implications of this paper are reflected in pointing out the role of a teacher as a reflective practitioner inclined to continually question and further their work.