Reflective Writing #4

PIDP 3210 – Assignment 1: Reflection 1

Objective

For my first reflective writing assignment, I’ve chosen to reflect on the following statement from the 3210 Course Manual (n.d.): “Behaviours, for example, such as attendance, punctuality, cooperation, politeness, and willingness to take direction can be factors in our decisions about learners’ success. However, instructors may fail to recognize these as components of the “implicit curriculum” because they appear so obvious”. This quote highlights the requirements of students in a classroom setting which are unevaluated, and largely unrelated to the course subject matter. It spoke to me because it caused me to self-evaluate and realize that those qualities are integral to the course which I teach, yet only attendance has a formal policy.

Reflective

I am an Electrical Trades Instructor. Prior to transitioning to teaching, I went through the ranks of Apprentice to Journeyman to Boss. Through this perspective, I identified with the above quote because these implicit curriculum requirements are integral to being successful in my trade. If one does not exhibit every one of the qualities above, they are most certainly not going to be successful in the trade. I wish for my students to be successful in their careers and thus, it occurred to me that if these actions are so important to success, why are they not formally evaluated?

Interpretive

Ultimately my job is to educate the apprentices on how electricity works. Grading is dictated by the Industry Training Authority and thus, adding a line item for the implicit curriculum is not possible. I can, however, take steps to illuminate this implicit curriculum. Brenda Smith Myles offers a solution in her article, “Making Sense of the Hidden Curriculum” (2014, May 1). She recommends the One a Day method as a way of explicitly stating the implicit curriculum in an effort to aid students with social disorders. In the One a Day method, “the classroom teacher writes one hidden curriculum item on the whiteboard each morning and introduces this item to students as a first activity”. This method could kick start discussion on behaviours and how they affect performance in the classroom, and on the jobsite.

In addition, I’ve come to think about the hidden curriculum in some of my lessons. In our studies, we review proper implementation of the Canadian Electrical Code, Part 1 (Canadian Standards Association, 2015). The Code is a minimum standard for prevention of fire and shock hazards. My lessons typically center on how to do work to the absolute minimum legal standard. This make a lot of sense from an economics standpoint, but may be indirectly teaching the lesson that we should be striving to do the minimum possible work acceptable.

Decisional

Perhaps the best way of bringing the implicit curriculum into the explicit realm of my instructing is to change the course outline. I believe it would benefit students to know exactly what is expected of them, behaviourally, in my class, and in the workplace. Further, by having One a Day mini lessons centered around jobsite scenarios, students will be forced to think about expectations and where they fit in their respective companies.

Although one could argue to a certain degree that societal and cultural considerations must be made for students, the fact of the matter is that apprentices must be useful to their employers and must fit a certain behavioural mold. It would be in their best interest to explicitly be told what those expectations are.

References

3210 Course Manual (n.d.). Explicit and Implicit Curriculum Development. Retrieved from

http://moodle.vcc.ca/pluginfile.php/781862/mod_resource/content/3/Explicit%20and%20Implicit%20Curriculum%20Development.pdf

Canadian Standards Association (CSA) (2015). Canadian Electrical Code, Part 1. Mississauga, ON: CSA.

Myles, B. S. (2014, May 1). Making Sense of the Hidden Curriculum. Retrieved from https://www.education.com/reference/article/hidden-curriculum-school-asperger/