Examining Student and Faculty Perspectives on Hidden Curriculum in Computing Education

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

7-14-2025

Abstract

Hidden curriculum (HC) consists of the collective behaviors, cultural norms, and assumed knowledge that students are expected to know, but never taught. For example, teamwork skills are expected during group projects, but may not have been taught explicitly. Further, knowledge such as command line tools, interview/resume skills, and time-management can fall into the HC. HC exists in a specific context and changes over time, making it hard to examine and address. My doctoral work is situated around uncovering and addressing HC in computing education. My on-going master's thesis, as part of my PhD, studies HC at Michigan Technological University's Computer Science Department. It examines the connections between faculty's observations of students displaying HC and student's experienced HC. These two, sometimes opposing, perspectives offer a complete view of HC and are often considered separately in HC research. To find commonalities between these perspectives, the study also examines near-peer mentors. A near-peer mentor is a student that takes on an instructional role; for example student teaching assistants. Faculty have a limited view of their students' misconceptions and students can't know what they don't know. Near-peer mentors offer a perspective that serves as a midway point between faculty and student. Their perspectives might offer ways to combine student and faculty experiences and observations. The study uses survey methods to collect a snapshot of possible HC at my institution using literature as a basis. The study then uses semi-structured interviews to dive into the specifics of observations and experiences of HC The interviews and surveys include all three perspectives: student, faculty, and mentor. I will use thematic analysis to examine common HC informed by the surveys, to reveal possible themes, connections and distinctions between perspectives, and challenges.

Publication Title

Respect 2025 Proceedings of the 2025 Conference for Research on Equitable and Sustained Participation in Engineering Computing and Technology

ISBN

[9798400713552]

Link to Full Text

Share

COinS