Lived Experiences of Undergraduate Medical Students about Hidden Curriculum: A Phenomenological Study

摘要

The hidden curriculum refers to student experiences that occur outside the formal structure of thecurriculum, and especially the messages provided by the education system concerning values, perspectives,behaviors, and attitudes which has a strong influence on students' professional development. This study aimedat explaining the lived experiences of undergraduate medical students about the “hidden curriculum.” This wasa qualitative phenomenological study. Participants were medical students of Iran University of MedicalSciences and they were chosen by purposive sampling method based on the inclusion criteria. Semi-structuredinterviews with open-ended questions were conducted with 10 students until data saturation, and 7-stepColaizzi's method was utilized for the purposes of analyzing the study findings. In the process of analyzing datafrom medical students' lived experiences about hidden curriculum, the following three themes were extracted:1. Conflict in value beliefs (sub-themes: not giving priority to students education, applicability to the clinicalpractice of basic sciences, attitude towards discipline, professional ethics, justice in evaluation”) 2. Modelingteacher’s communication skills patterns (sub-themes: “teacher-patient relationship,” “teacher -studentrelationship and professor-colleagues relationship) 3. Effective teaching (sub-themes: “clinical teaching” and“theoretical teaching”). Based on the results of the study, the hidden curriculum has both positive and negativeimpacts on various aspects of learning, especially the attitudinal domain. Consequently, paying specificattention to hidden curriculums is an absolute need.