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Teaching Strategies as a Powerful Hidden Curriculum: A
Review Study
Mirza Basyiruddin1, Rukayah2*, Roemintoyo3
1,2,3Universitas Sebelas Maret Surakarta
1mzdrieinc@gmail.com, 2rukayah@staff.uns.ac.id, 3roemintoyo@yahoo.co.id
Abstract: A hidden curriculum arises during the learning process especially when the
interaction between teacher and student. How the teacher chooses to educate students can
convey messages that are hidden and not hidden. The message has a positive or negative
effect. That's why teaching strategies are a powerful hidden curriculum. This review study
includes some articles to prove the existence of a hidden curriculum in teaching strategies
chosen by teachers and their impact on students. Linking existing educational theories and
expert opinions is a way of reviewing this article. This review study is expected to give
consideration to the teachers in choosing the right teaching strategy to achieve the learning
goals.
Keywords: teaching strategies, hidden curriculum, primary school
INTRODUCTION
The teacher as a learning resource is obliged to provide a creative and innovative learning
environment for student learning activities in the classroom. One of the activities that teachers
must do is to select and determine strategies to achieve teaching goals. Orlich et al.(2010) The
term strategy implies thoughtful planning to do something. Murdiono (2012) Teaching
strategies are plans and ways to implement learning activities so that the basic principles of
learning can be carried out and learning objectives can be achieved effectively. Iskandarwassid,
& Sunendar (2008) There are four basic strategies in learning, namely identifying what is
expected, choosing and defining procedures, methods, and learning techniques, establishing
norms and minimum limits of success.
The main objective of choosing the right learning strategy is the realization of a good quality
education. The quality of education is the main issue discussed in various countries. PISA (the
OECD's Program for International Student Assessment) is one of the institutions that assess the
quality of education in reading, mathematics, and science. PISA assessment can be used as a
reference in improving and developing the quality of education, especially for countries that get
low scores.
Ii (2018) Students need to develop a set of abilities to succeed in the information age called
21st Century skills. Tican & Deniz (2019) Adapting to social values, professional life, and life
itself is difficult for students. Ahmad (2017) Students can gain knowledge effectively if the
teacher is more creative and innovative in learning activities. That is the reason for the
development of teaching strategies from time to time.
Consciously or unconsciously in learning strategies, messages are hidden and not hidden.
Maria (2015) values that are embedded in students who are not included in the curriculum and
include informal or formal influences, because socio-cultural structures, families, street groups,
personalities in educational relationships are referred to as hidden content. This hidden content
called the hidden curriculum. Henson (2015) The task of understanding clear concepts about the
hidden curriculum is difficult because it carries subtle messages that go on and on. To prove that
the hidden curriculum is a powerful force in any school, and that can strengthen school, state
and local reform efforts and school missions that are stated to be not difficult.
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3rd International Conference on Learning Innovation and Quality Education (ICLIQE 2019)
Copyright © 2020 The Authors. Published by Atlantis Press SARL.
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Learning strategies as a hidden curriculum can be illustrated as teachers use cooperative
learning models. cooperative learning has a hidden message that is the existence of social
contacts that can work together or not students in the group. So, cooperative learning must pay
attention to the knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors that students have in order to run effectively
and efficiently. The illustration also proves that the hidden curriculum can have positive effects
and negative effects. Therefore, teachers must pay attention to the strategies he uses.
This review study aims to analyze the experiences of the teachers in applying the learning
strategies chosen through a review of the literature from various published research articles so
as to give the teacher the right teaching strategy to achieve the learning goals.
METHOD
Galvan & Galvan (2017) In reviewing the literature it will be easier to identify the main
theories that apply to topics of interest. Cohen, Manion, & Morrison (2018) Journals, abstracts,
and online titles to search literature form material relevant to the chosen topic. Jesson,
Matheson, Lacey (2011) One concept we have emphasized so far is that literature reviews
should take a critical approach. Fink (2014) A review of the literature is method for identifying,
evaluating, and synthesizing existing bodies from completed and recorded works produced by
practitioners, researchers, and scholars. The discussion focus of this article is to prove the
existence of a hidden curriculum in the teaching strategies used by teachers in educating their
students. The selected literature is several books and articles that are accessed online, especially
through ERIC, Scopus indexed open access journal, and PNRI (National Library of the
Republic of Indonesia). Books and articles are collected and selected that are relevant according
to the focus of the discussion. There are two types of literature used, namely the main literature
that contains articles containing phenomena to analyze the existence of hidden curricula, and the
second literature as reinforcement and comparative study material. This review study is
processed qualitatively by analyzing some of the literature that will be reviewed with theories
and opinions of experts in education.
Figure 1. The Literature Review Model (Machi & McEvoy, 2016)
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RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The existence of a hidden curriculum can be proven by analyzing the impact of teaching
strategies on students. We can identify the impact of teaching through the results of research on
teaching strategies carried out by the teacher. Therefore, there are two steps that will be taken,
namely reviewing the teacher's teaching strategy and analyzing the hidden curriculum.
Review Teaching Strategies Used.
Example 1 - Teaching Strategies Approach
The term "approach" in the teaching strategy refers to the orientation of the implementation
of learning. The teaching strategy approach used by the teacher is a traditional or teacher-
centered approach and a modern or student-centered approach.
Ivić, Gortan, & Gortana (2016) The traditional approach in school is teacher-oriented which
transfers specific verbal information for each lesson, while students are passive observers who
listen, copy, memorize, and repeat. The results of observations regarding the learning approach
are teacher-centered from the research Zohrabi, Torabi, & Baybourdiani (2012) state that the
problem is students do not use their potential, the main focus is to get students to carry out the
state mandate test well rather than serving students' needs.
Anagun (2018) The teacher is the main actor who shapes learning for students and has an
important role in applying innovative approaches to learning. Ivić, Gortan, & Gortana (2016)
Student oriented teaching implies that students work together with the teacher to choose
teaching goals and teaching assignments based on authentic problems and students' prior
knowledge, experience and interests. The study of teaching strategies using a modern or
student-centered approach will be discussed by giving an example application in point 2.
Example 2 - Teaching Strategy Style
We know that each subject has different characteristics. Rodriguez said the students have
more negative attitudes toward math and science. Laine, & Näveri (2019) Teachers a central
role in advancing social interaction and a positive atmosphere in their classes. In their research
state that the emotional atmosphere can be built to be positive when the teacher invites students
to talk about mathematics and their own understanding of each other. Rourke, Main, & Ellis
(2013) Games technology in the form of handheld game consoles focuses on specific academic
skill development has the capacity to engage students in learning and in turn produce positive
academic results. The result Rourke, Main, & Ellis (2013) research state that the handheld game
consoles capacity to engage students in sustained learning and collaborative opportunities that
most impressed the educators. Anton (2013) Gasing is a tool suitable for teaching and learning
the concept of time measurement. Anton state that learning sequences are generated to support
the emergence of student strategy as a model consisting of playing traditional top tops and turns,
measuring time using hours, determining the duration of the event.
Analyze The Hidden Curriculum
CHIŞIU (2015) The contents of an educational or curriculum element are not always tangible
or measurable. There are terms like hidden curriculum or cache content for some of the values
transmitted through the school. Glatthorn et.al (2019) The concept of a hidden curriculum gives
the idea that schools do more than just transmit knowledge. As in the first example about the
impact of teaching strategies using a teacher-centered approach, which has a negative impact on
students.
Sharpe & Curwen (2012) The next level of the hidden curriculum assumes the child's role as
a student is to receive knowledge from a character who controls and supervises what is learned.
Çubukçu, Z. (2012) Students must not act without teacher approval or approval. The teacher can
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be subjective in practice about which courses and subjects are important. The teacher gives a
secret message to students whether the subject matter or not. The second example provides an
overview of negative views on mathematics. The teacher can control this view by providing a
pleasant learning atmosphere so that it can support learning. Teacher creativity in teaching is
very necessary to motivate students in learning.
The hidden curriculum that developed in the school environment basically supported the
formal curriculum carried out in schools. The hidden curriculum provides a profound
experience of personality, norms, values, beliefs that are not fully explained in the teaching
carried out by the teacher. Al & Al (2017) The importance of a hidden curriculum in the
learning process is to present its part in a variety of educational experiences, which leaves a
strong impact on social, behavioral, ethical, spiritual values, and intellectual.
CONCLUSION
Teaching strategies have a very strong influence that affects students. Hidden curriculum can
have negative or positive impacts. The hidden curriculum will influence the development of
students' attitudes, behaviors, and knowledge. Therefore, the teacher must pay attention to the
use of his teaching strategy, especially reviewing the hidden curriculum that will appear.
Primary students have special characteristics than students at other levels. We can find these
special characteristics in terms of emotional, interaction, language, and physical and
psychological growth. Learning objectives will be more easily achieved if the teacher knows the
characteristics of students. But the learning objectives will also be difficult to achieve if the
teacher does not understand the characteristics of elementary school students. Therefore, the
teacher must master the pedagogic ability to help the learning process.
Professional skills must also be mastered by the teacher. This ability is related to the
teacher's mastery of the subject matter. The success of learning is also determined by the ability
of teachers to understand and develop subject matter.
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