Hidden Curriculum: The Impact of Assessment on Students’ Self-Regulated Learning and Resilience

Abstract

The development of students with a formal curriculum should be in balance with the social and cultural aspects of any school, which in this place is the second curriculum or hidden curriculum so as to ensure a holistic development of students. The study sought to explore the positive impact of classroom assessment on students' resilience as a hidden curriculum. Students of University of Education, Winneba were targeted out of which 150 undergraduate students were randomly selected for the study participants. Three instruments were used. They were the unidimensional school assessment perception scale developed by Fisher, Waldrip and Dorman, Resilience scale by Campbell-Sills and Stein and the Self-Regulated learning scale by Tan et al., were adapted and used for the measurement of the constructs of relevance in the study. Data on the two hypotheses were tested using Covariance-Based Structural Equation Modelling (CB-SEM) method with bias corrected confidence intervals. The finding of the study revealed that assessment was a significant predictor of self-regulated learning and resilience. It was recommended among others that faculty members are encouraged to strengthen classroom formative assessment practices and not to dwell on only summative assessment to take classroom related decisions. The implication of this is that it will create dynamic assessment culture that consolidate both the formal and the positive hidden curriculum benefits.

The impact of the Systematic Assessment for Resilience (SAR) framework on students’ resilience, anxiety, depression, burnout, and academic-related stress: a quasi-experimental study

“…The SAR contains guidelines focusing on emotion regulation, such as “advising students on exam skills” and “providing strategies for students to reduce test anxiety.” These guidelines principally aim to mitigate anxiety, thus fostering resilience. Cobbinah and Amoako [ 62 ] used a non-experimental study design to show that the assessment promotes resilience by causing students to manage and cope well with academic stress caused by “the assessment” without support and guidance, whereas the current study used an empirical study design (quasi-experimental) and designed a comprehensive assessment framework to promote resilience proactively. The current study provided protective factors (resources for assessment direction and preparation).…”