مرکز منطقه ای اطلاع رساني علوم و فناوري - Determination the Effects of Hidden Messages in Official Curriculum on Students’ Perceptions of the Freedom ValueFreedom or Safety?

Abstract :

Values, effecting formation of individual and society, take part in the general objective of the education system and are gained by individuals via official/hidden curriculum. Individual s awareness of the values, internalization of the values, generation of new values and usage these values on behaviors are generally in the responsibility of the educational system. Therefore there is need to determine whether the values are gained by students or not. The aim of this study is to determine the effect of hidden curriculum’s, which take part in official curriculum, on perceptions of students regarding the value of freedom and this study also aims to determine the source of this effect. In this research, the randomized posttest-only control group design of experimental model was conducted. The sample of this research is constituted of 5th grade students of 54 in secondary schools. A form, which is composed of two open ended questions, is used as the data collection instrument of this research. In order to analyze the data, content analysis method was used. According to the findings of this research, when the original fable which is translated from its original language and the differentiated version of the fable which is stated in the curriculum were told to students, differences in internalized values of students were determined. Students choose the dog character when the differentiated fable which is stated in the curriculum was told and they choose the wolf character when the original fable which is translated from its original language was told. When the reasons of students in selecting the characters were examined, it was found that students who internalized the dog character stated primarily basic needs such as “nutrition, health, sheltering, affection and trust” on the other hand students who internalized the wolf character stated primarily the value “freedom”. Contradiction becomes inevitable if official curriculum doesn t coincide with hidden curriculum. These contradictions in curriculum deeply affect values, ideas and attitudes to be internalized by students. In order to remove this contradictory situation, the content of curriculum and textbooks should be evaluated and developed consistently.