Threepenny Review

INTRODUCTIONWhat students are taught in class is not necessarily what they learn.1REVIEW OF LITERATUREThe idea that educational curricula contain both explicit and implicit components is not new. In the early 20th century, John Dewey17 noted that collateral learning has a more lasting effect on students than the formal curriculum. During the 1970s and 1980s, Kohlberg,18'19 Giroux, and Penna20 published on the role of the hidden curriculum in conveying norms and values. As described above, Hafferty2 further defined the explicit and implicit curricula in medical education as encompassing 3 areas of influence: the formal, informal, and hidden curriculum. In addition, he proposed that examination of the hidden curriculum should include consideration of program and institutional policy development, evaluation methods and processes, resource allocation, and institutional slang or nomenclature.A number of authors have attempted to identify aspects of the informal and hidden curriculum in medicine and other health professions. …