Hidden Curriculum in Saudi Arabia - Essay Example

It is not said for instance, in either the co-curriculum or extra-curriculum that a student needs to have some plumbing skills or other technical skills necessary for carrying out some simple but often complicated duties like connecting electric wires, ironing, and repairing a broken chair(Henry, P.& Anthony1983). However, when there is the provision for doing such important activities not necessarily taught in class, it is quite evident that the students get more equipped concerning what pertains to them in day-to-day life (Anyon, J1983).

The positive role of the hidden curriculum is unimaginably big. This is because, outside school, the students live in an environment that requires more than what they are taught (Rosenbaum, J 1976). Consequently, in such situations, perhaps there could be no one the student can call for assistance. Suppose the situation was critically dangerous, chances are high that the lack of extra skills in the student will lead to havoc. A gas cooker could be leaking, for instance (Apple, M &Nancy, K 1983).

What would prevent the leakage from causing fire and burning down the whole house, if the student has not to get exposed to the gas used in the laboratory and know how it is delicate, and how it can be handled?Besides, the ways staff behaves in the school environment bring in another example of the hidden curriculum whereby students can be impacted positively (Martin, J 1983). When the teachers display courtesy and respect towards one another, this can be seen. For instance, the way the teachers talk with each other, the way they greet one another, and the way they walk together, can greatly influence the students.

In most cases, students will copy these habits and put them into practice (Kohlberg, L 1983). Therefore, when the teachers display courteous values in school towards one another, the students will borrow this and learn to live like the teachers. On the other hand, if the teachers are doing acts, which pervert the moral norms like smoking and drinking while they are in school, nothing will prevent at least a group of students from hooking up with these habits (Greene, M 1983). The reason why these students will choose to do what the teacher does is that perhaps they like the teacher when he or she is teaching and as a result, has become the role model of the students.

Therefore, nothing will stop the students from smoking or drinking (Cornbleth, C. 1984). Hidden curricula involve the messages passed implicitly and unintended to students during tutorial sessions by the lecturer. They have invisible but factual consequences to the students (Margolis, E. &Michael S. 2001). There are three areas in which hidden curriculum can be seen, analyzed and its effect on the students identified by psychologists through the students’ reactions; crowd, praise, and power.

On the crowd interplay, a student easily submits passively that he or he lacks individual instructions, the existence of the necessity of coping with one’s own movement restrictions; one has also to adhere with an existing time schedule to mention but a few. On the praise interplay, praise is generally related to compliance and obedience to the institutional rules (Elizabeth, V. 1983). There are also methods of learning and identifying the nature of this type of curriculum basing the research on the power of the tutor.

In general, the nature and acquisition of the curricula can be summarized in one sentence; as different students do interrelation on a social and educational basis, they do constant shaping, characterization, and outlining that they apply in the beliefs, morals, values, and general behaviors.