The hidden curriculum has been defined as "the skills that we are not taught directly yet are assumed to know" (Myles & Simpson, 2001, p. 279). In many cases hidden curriculum is constituted by what a school does rather than what it says it is doing in its official mission statements and curriculum, and "The messages of hidden curriculum usually deal with attitudes, values, beliefs, and behavior" (Cornbleth, 2009). An example of hidden curriculum is the unspoken intention of a high school to achieve a high rate of graduating students going on to college. The hidden curriculum in this case may be evidenced by a limited number of vocational-type courses and a high number of college-preparatory and advanced placement-type courses. The student attending such a school and disinterested in going to college may feel like "a fish out of water" without necessarily realizing why. Wren (1999, p. 1) points out that "Usually, when educators refer to school curriculum, they have explicit, consciously planned course objectives in mind" but that "in contrast to this didactic curriculum, students experience an 'unwritten curriculum' characterized by informality and lack of conscious planning." This behind-the-scenes curriculum exists below the radar but requires students to "internalize a specific program of social norms for training in order to function effectively as members of a smaller society, the school, and later on as productive citizens of the larger American society" (Wren, 1993, as cited in Wren, 1999, p. 1). At some level, the hidden curriculum communicates to students what is expected of them if they are to succeed at the school.
Three factors that influence hidden curriculum include bias, expectations, and motivational techniques. Bias is often linked with expectations and exerts a potent effect on students. Sadker (1994, as cited in Chapman, n.d.) stated that "Sitting in the same classroom, reading the same tex...