Planning for the Planned and Unplanned

UNESCO details four pillars of education: learning to know, learning to do, learning to be together and learning to be. In order for a holistic education, all four must be achieved. Within the school system, most educators focus mostly on the formal curriculum, or what is written down. However, curriculum is much more complex than simply a list of topics and texts under consideration. The formal curriculum does not stand alone, but is dependent upon informal curriculum and the hidden curriculum to achieve learning. Curriculum is a process, not a product, and a successful education needs to have all three aspects of curricula included.

The formal curriculum, sometimes defined as the explicit curriculum (Eisner), is usually a written document or educational menu that outlines the topics that students learn in the course of a year or two years. The formal curriculum is often test-driven and adheres to national standards. Within UNESCO’s four pillars of education, the formal curriculum would fall under what students are ‘learning to know’ and ‘learning to do’. The formal curriculum requires planning in terms of the propositional knowledge it aims to teach, but also its larger contexts. Within the IB program, each grade level’s subject leaders plan the curriculum together, and work collaboratively to establish links between subjects based around Areas of Interaction, such as “Health and Social Education”. In the upper grades, all subjects are linked through the Theory of Knowledge course, which explores each of the subject areas with Cartesian skepticism.  As a result, teachers are required to be knowledgeable not only about their own personal subject areas, but the entire formal curriculum. When all teachers are made aware of topics, learning, which happens in context, is deepened.

The formal curriculum is composed of both what is written down, but also, what is absent. The Null curriculum (Eisner) has consequences. In planning, a teacher must take into a count the overt curriculum, which often comes from administrators and directors, and the null curriculum. For example, when I was a student in IB History, the curriculum I adhered to focused mostly on Europe, whereas the history of Canada, where I was studying, was entirely absent. Therefore, the null curriculum had an effect on my educational experience, but also my perspective of my own world. In this way, I was operating opposed to national standards, and my formal curriculum was in direct conflict with the formal curriculum of some of my peers. In terms of teaching, it is important that the formal curriculum be analyzed both for its strengths and limitation. Formal curriculum planning should be a constant state of change as it is reevaluated and reconsidered.

The informal curriculum is a little more difficult to pin down than the formal curriculum. Informal education is any kind of education that happens outside a formal setting, or that is not written down. Often, informal curriculum is not planned, or it would be come part of the formal curriculum. In terms of UNESCO’s four pillars, informal curriculum could be learning to know, do, be together and to be. Informal learning could take place in terms of socialization. It is important for a teacher to be aware of the socialization happening within her classroom, particularly because of the ‘sticky’ nature of knowledge. Extra curricular activities are also part of the informal curriculum. For example, students who take place in sports outside of school will learn necessary teamwork skills. Similarly, students with good social relationships outside of school will develop attuned interpersonal or communicative skills.

‘Hidden Curriculum’ seems to have a negative connotation, but hidden curriculums could be both positive and negative. Learning to be together and to be is the result of  “implicit messages conveyed through the structure and organization of the institution, the relationships between teachers and pupils, the disciplinary regime, the assessment system, and the various subcultures that exist (Humes). These factors result in a culture of school. For Eisner, the school system resulted in reward junkies, unskilled at self-motivating but dependent upon an authoritative power. What kind of behavior is being reinforced in our schools? What implicit messages are we sending? A teacher must be aware of the hidden curriculum being communicated to his/her students, both through his/her individual teaching and through the system as a whole. Teachers must be aware of their own biases when planning activities and strive to place value on behaviors that would be beneficial for the students. For example, if a student’s input into the classroom structure is valued, the student will learn that they have power.  I am an active member of two volunteer groups at my school, and in this way, I am contributing to a hidden curriculum of the importance of volunteering. It is difficult to plan the hidden curriculum, but it is incredibly important for teachers to be aware of the hidden curriculum in their teaching.

                  In conclusion, curriculum is multi-layered subject. In order to communicate the formal curriculum effectively, educators must rely on the skills learned through the informal curriculum and the behaviours learned through the hidden curriculum. Educators are responsible for transmitting all three curricula, and must be mindful of the effects of each curricula on the knowledge, skills and behaviours of the learners, both in their teaching and their planning. An offhand remark made about the failure of a recycling campaign, for instance, could result in a lack of interest in government, and a complete disengagement with formal curriculum centered on pollution reduction. While informal and hidden curriculum are, by definition, not written or planned, the culture of school relies upon them as steadfastly as upon the formal curriculum.