A holistic curriculum or education seeks to develop all three domains of learning: cognitive, psychomotor and affective. While the cognitive domain focuses on the mental and psychological fortitude of learners, the psychomotor focuses on the use and development of muscular or motor skills and the affective domain deals with the feelings, emotions and attitudes of students. Interestingly, not all these domains are sufficiently written or documented as guidelines or curricula for classroom practice. It is for such reasons that the ‘hidden’ curriculum becomes needful, as it not only complements the official curriculum but plays a significant role in shaping the values of learners. This qualitative study engages 52 language students in a college of education in Ghana to reveal their views on their experiences with the ‘hidden’ curriculum. Questionnaires and semi-structured interviews were the data collection instruments. The inductive content analysis technique is used to analyse the collected data. The outcome of the study reveals that gender and sexuality, religion, politics, hard work and confidence are values ‘taught’ through the hidden curriculum. The findings of the study create awareness, especially for teachers that, beyond ‘what’ they teach in the classroom, ‘how’ they teach also unconsciously transmits lessons. This means that teachers should be mindful of how they dress, walk, talk and behave in the classroom since all these virtues contribute to the overall teaching and learning process.   Keywords: Curriculum, cognitive skills, psychomotor skills, affective skills, classroom practice;

This study sets out to investigate, examine and understand the hidden ideologies and ideological structures/devices in the 2013 State of the Nation Address of President John Dramani Mahama. The study specifically aimed to (i) ascertain the ideologies embedded in the speech and (ii) investigate linguistic expressions and devices which carry these ideological colourations in the speech under review. It uses Critical Discourse Analysis as the theoretical framework to examine the role of language in creating ideology as well as the ideological structures in the speech. These hidden ideologies are created, enacted and legitimated by the application of certain linguistic devices. The researchers deem a study of this nature important as it will expose hidden motives that Ghanaian presidents cloth in language in order to manipulate their audience through their speeches in order to win and/or sustain political power. Through thematic analysis, it was revealed that Mahama projected these ideologies in his speech: ideology of positive self-representation, ideology of human value, ideology of economic difficulty, ideology of power relations and ideology of urgency. It also revealed that Mahama projects his ideologies through the following ideological discursive structures: pronouns, biblical allusion and metaphor. The study has shown that language plays a crucial role in human existence as a means of socialisation. Language has been revealed as a means of communicating ideologies and events of the world. In the tradition of CDA, this study has confirmed that text and talk have social and cultural character and that discourse functions ideologically.

A holistic curriculum or education seeks to develop all three domains of learning: cognitive, psychomotor and affective. While the cognitive domain focuses on the mental and psychological fortitude of learners, the psychomotor focuses on the use and development of muscular or motor skills and the affective domain deals with the feelings, emotions and attitudes of students. Interestingly, not all these domains are sufficiently written or documented as guidelines or curricula for classroom practice. It is for such reasons that the ‘hidden’ curriculum becomes needful, as it not only complements the official curriculum but plays a significant role in shaping the values of learners. This qualitative study engages 52 language students in a college of education in Ghana to reveal their views on their experiences with the ‘hidden’ curriculum. Questionnaires and semi-structured interviews were the data collection instruments. The inductive content analysis technique is used to analyse the collected data. The outcome of the study reveals that gender and sexuality, religion, politics, hard work and confidence are values ‘taught’ through the hidden curriculum. The findings of the study create awareness, especially for teachers that, beyond ‘what’ they teach in the classroom, ‘how’ they teach also unconsciously transmits lessons. This means that teachers should be mindful of how they dress, walk, talk and behave in the classroom since all these virtues contribute to the overall teaching and learning process.   Keywords: Curriculum, cognitive skills, psychomotor skills, affective skills, classroom practice;