Which concept covers attitudes and behaviours learned through school administration and teacher conduct rather than curriculum content?

• A. Social Control
• B. Rewards
• C. Hidden Curriculum
• D. Secondary socialisation

Answer: (C)

Hidden curriculum refers to the attitudes and behaviours students pick up from the way a school is run and how teachers interact with them, rather than from the content of the lessons themselves. It includes lessons about authority, discipline, conformity, punctuality, and how to navigate routines and rules, learned through classroom management, administration, and everyday interactions rather than explicit syllabi. This makes it distinct from the explicit curriculum, which is about the subject knowledge being taught. It’s also more specific than broad ideas like social control or secondary socialisation: social control is the general process of enforcing norms, rewards are a specific incentive tool, and secondary socialisation covers learning norms from multiple institutions. The unspoken messages embedded in school life best capture the concept here.