Chapter 1 Introduction
1.1 Research Background
With the implementation of the Direction of the Outline for Basic Education CurriculumReform, compulsory education has em phasized and focused on the students’ integrateddevelopment, especially the students’ education in the hidden level. Hidden curriculum as apart of curriculum has been a hot topic being di scussed in the field of new curricu lum theoryresearch. Its unique advantage is to focus on the student’ s life experience, th eir learningprocess, emotional experience and the cultiv ation of emotion and attitude and so on. Thestudents’cultivation needs enforcing in the educational practice.Rational exploitation and active utilization of the curr iculum resources is th e vitalguarantee to im plement English c urriculum effectively and improve the teach ing quality.(NECS, 2011, p41) The English textbook is regarded as the main carrier of the knowledge andthe core part of the Englis h curriculum resources, including the significant know ledge andinformation for students’ learning and teachers’ school-teaching. Thus the hidden curriculumin the tex tbooks has aroused widespread at tention in th e teaching practice. The hiddeninformation and resources in the English te xtbooks will contain m uch cultural awareness,foreign customs, emotional cognition, moral ideas and so o n, which cannot eas ily be foundbut enrich the teaching contents and enla rge students’ knowledge. Analysis of hiddenCurriculum in the En glish textbook makes it neces sary for teachers and rese archers todiscover the information below the surface of the textbook s for better understand ing and tomake full use of the English resources.
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1.2 Research Purpose
The exploration of teaching practice in the last decade have attained some achievements.The new education al idea is strengthened a nd implemented in th e teaching practice.Meanwhile, some problems are exposed to teachers in the lack of the intensive understandingabout textbooks. So the curriculum reform puts that teachers should apply new ideas to theanalysis of textbooks thoroughly and deeply. Hidden curriculum as a form and a part ofcourses can not be ignored in the curriculum reform(He Haiyu, 2004, pp. 34-36).After searching for the domestic papers, domestic experts and scholars have made someachievements in the theoretical and practical aspects, but there are less research on the hiddencurriculum of subject courses. The hidden content in the textbooks is not always attracting theteachers’ attention. English as a kind of language is one of the compulsory courses, not onlydeveloping students’ language communicative competence, but also cu ltivating their activeattitude, cultural awareness, m oral traits and the abilities of self-dependent innovation andproblem-solving(Lu Ziwen, 2006, p. 10). Text information is the main proof and reference ofclass teaching, but it isn’t the entire teaching context. Teachers should make the most of theteaching resources in the textbook s to m ake students acquire th e potential ab ilities andimprove their overall qualities. However, the present researches of the hidden curriculum inthe English textbooks are deficient. Therefor e, utilizing the hidden curriculum of thetextbooks well is to assist and instruct students to acquaint the knowledge structure in theEnglish textbooks. The current study of hidden cu rriculum in the textbooks has become moreand more significant. T his paper takes Go For It for th e example to analyze the hidden resources in order to be helpful on the English teaching research.
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Chapter 2 Literature Review
This chapter is devoted to the literature review of hidden curriculum at home and abroadas well as studies of hidden curriculum in textbooks. Through the analysis of literature review,it is expected to provide the rationalization for the study designed in the present study. It willalso contribute to researchers to understand the thesis more easily.
2.1 Researches on Hidden Curriculum
Study of hidden curriculum has attracted wide attention at home and abroad since itsemergence in 1980s. Educators and scholars have made some researches from differentaspects. They have got som e useful explorations and discoveries incl uding the definition ofhidden curriculum, the features of hidden curriculum, the functions of hidden curriculum andhidden curriculum in the textbooks and so on. Some different fields involve the study ofhidden curriculum, such as hidden curriculum in advertisement boards (Mason, Lance E.,2015, pp. 104-111), hidden curriculum in the special education (Moyse R. & Porter J., 2015,pp. 187-201), hidden curriculum in the management education (Blasco & Maribel, 2012, pp.364-388), hidden curriculum in the veterinary medicine (Whitcomb TL., 2014, pp. 344-353).Although there are numerous researches on the hidden curriculum, it does not mean the studyin the field has met its terminal. The development of hidden curriculum is im proving anddeepening the curricu lum reform and the te aching practice. Hence, analysis of hiddencurriculum is the continuous improvement process.
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2.2 Researches on Hidden Curriculum in Textbooks
The earliest research of hidden curriculum in the textbooks were American J. Anyon andApple.M.W. Their idea is that the s chool as a kind of the culture capital reflects the will andidea of the m ighty. They proposes educators should deepen the hidden inform ation in thetextbooks and they studies the hidden curricul um of history textbooks in Am erican juniorschool. After their research, they found there ar e much hidden ideology in the textbooks andthe way to put culture and value into the curr iculum. The study of hidden curriculum in thetextbooks mainly can be classified in three aspects as follows;Most analysis of hidden curr iculum in the textbooks is to discover the hidden courseresources of textbooks. Liu Hanc heng (2008) analyses the hidden resources in the chemistryexperiment textbooks from the design ideas an d features of textbook s, the ideas of newcurriculum reform, the content arran gement and the forms of hidden resource presentation.Tylor, F. (1958, pp. 300-31 1) claims hidden curriculum can be the com plex whole whichincludes knowledge, belief, art, m orals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a m ember of society. Chapelle (2009, pp. 139-152) puts forwards thatforeign language textbooks are the m ain resource of cultural input for students in theclassroom. Shi lingm ei’ (2016) thesis puts the hidden problem s in the prim ary schoollanguage textbook.Some researches are about the effects of hidden curriculum in the textbooks for students.Liu Zhaoyang (2005, pp. 28-30) believes that hidde n curriculum exists in Junior Englishtextbooks. Besides, he concludes s ome positive effects of hidden curriculum in these books,discusses some negative effects, and puts forw ard his some advice on the construction ofhidden curriculum in English textbooks. Zhao Jinfang (2011) finds hidden curriculum in EFLtextbooks can weaken students’ negative effects, and discusses hidden curriculum in Advancewith English from three aspects: social cu ltural knowledge and value, social ideology andeditors’ ideas hidden in the textbooks; possi ble negative and positiv e effects of hiddencurriculum on the students; enlightenment on teachers and editors.
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Chapter 3 Theoretical Basis..........13
3.1 Humanistic Curriculum Theory........13
3.2 Curriculum Reform of Basic Education.......15
Chapter 4 Hidden Curriculum in Go For It........17
4.1 Introduction of Go For It......17
4.2 Presentation of Hidden Curriculum in Go For It......18
4.3Analysis of Hidden Curriculum in Go For It............19
4.4 Functions of Hidden Curriculum in the Textbooks...............27
Chapter 5 Application of Hidden Curriculum in the Textbooks...........31
5.1Analysis of English Teaching Cases.............31
5.1.1 Case1 .............31
5.1.2 Case2 .............33
5.2 Researches on theApplication of Hidden Curriculum in the Textbooks......35
Chapter 5 Application of Hidden Curriculum in the Textbooks
After reading the related literature and sorting out the related re search achievements,some factors of hidde n curriculum are certainly understood, which can im prove theunderstanding of this subjec t after carefully exam ination on the utilization andimplementation process of English curriculum reform. In the actual teaching activities basedon the analysis of class teaching, it puts forward how to make use of hidden curriculum in theEnglish curriculum implementation and evaluation, which makes this study give full play tothe role on the process of curriculum reform.
5.1Analysis of English Teaching Cases
The author chosen the English teaching cases highly evaluated online. T o improve theknowledge of hidden curriculum implementation, the tw o following typical cases aredesigned on the basis of the E nglish class teaching of junior school to be analyzed for theapplication of hidden curriculum.First, the teaching contents of hidden curriculum mainly involves the Chinese traditionalculture, some Chinese holiday s and the em otion to th e family presented in th e teachingobjectives and teaching procedures. Then, Englis h teachers are key to the teaching activ itiesdesign, and they guide the students and assist th em to finish the teaching tasks. For instance,in the warm-up, the teacher use the knowled ge students have learn ed to guide the topic.Students’learning process is the main step in the class teaching, so teachers should not disturbor intervene students as a guide an d assistant. In the step of reading, it shows the teachers’guiding by some questions. The whole class teach ing, students can learn the kno wledge bythemselves. This design can play an im portant part in developing their independent learningability. After reading, the teacher gives more information about the Chinese tradition festivals,enrich students the cultural knowledge and ev en some tradition customs. The design alsoinvolves the present life about the Chinese holid ays. Finally, homework need them m ake afestival card. They can give their own cards to their family or their friends to express their realfeeling.
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Conclusion
The presented paper confirms that hidden curriculum really exists in Go For It via theanalysis. It is also proved that hidden curriculu m has very rich contents and is presented by avariety of different forms. Since the textbook is the carrier of curriculum and the link betweenteachers and students, English class teaching efficiency of junior school can be improved afteranalyzing and utilizing the hidden curriculum of textbooks.The hidden curriculum in Go For It mainly embodies four following aspects from theperspective of humanistic curriculum theory, curriculum reform of basic education and NECS(2011).Above all, the hidden curriculum in Go For It is a kind of invisible power to subtlyinfluence students’ morality development and effectively to help the students internalize theirgood moral characters. Some excellent Chinese traditional merits are presented in the hiddencurriculum, such as politeness, love and kindne ss, willing to help others and so on, thusteachers are required to emphasize these moral merits in class and develop students’ goodhabits.As for the cultivation of emotion and life attitude, the contents of hidden curriculum inthe textbooks shows the optim istic and ac tive attitude to the lif e, and even ta kes somesuccessful cases for examples to encourage stu dents, such as the reading of unit 1 in the firstvolume of Grade eight. On the way to achieving one’s dream, he or she should have the spiritof perseverance and bravery. The excellent pe rsonal qualities can better im prove students’learning efficiency.Hidden curriculum can be seen ev erywhere in Go For It, so English teachers needinstruct students not only to learn the language skills and cultural knowledge but also to focuson the life changes around us, social developm ent and our surroundings. That is to say , ifteachers are conscious of the hidden curriculum in the textbooks, the teaching contents will beclose to our everyday life and are easily put in to practice. As a person living in society , thesocial problems and experience should not be ignored. The social developm ent and sciencetechnology can push forward our life and edu cation. As a result, students should beencouraged to have aw areness of anim al and environment protection. W hen these socialevents or life experience are involv ed, teachers should be committed to present thes e hiddencontents in class.Go For It employs a lot of foreign customs, manners and trad itional culture, say, theintroduction about Chinese and foreign festiv als and relative culture background, the livingconditions of different countries in the world and some famous scenic spots all over the world.All are of benefits to broaden the students’ cultural horizons, enrich their language knowledgeand enhance their intercultural consciousness, in the meanwhile, to inherit the Chinese longculture and history and learn the foreign excellent culture.All in all, there are five main educations of hidden curriculum in the textbooks, involvingmoral development, cognitive, cultural transmission, personality fo rmation and interestmotivation.
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References (abbreviated)