Hidden curriculum refers to unofficial and unwritten lessons, most often manifested in everyday activities, in communication between and with children, as well as when implementing praises, critiques and rules. It strongly affects daily routine activities, where the children have little to no opportunity to choose. Hidden curriculum reflects preschool teacher's own perspectives, prejudices and subjective theories, therefore in order to create positive changes a reflection to one's own outlook and personal values is necessary.
The thesis aims to discover which are the factors of hidden curriculum and how they are perceived by preschool teachers in preschool institutions, how preschool teachers' subjective theories link to hidden curriculum, how an preschool teacher's active role is shaped in communication with a child, and to assess the level of importance of directed and spontaneous activities on the messages of hidden curriculum. These questions, as well as potential dilemmas connected to hidden curriculum have been addressed in the theoretical part through an in-depth literature review. The empirical part focuses on research questions through descriptive and causal non-experimental methods of scientific research. Non-random samples of population included preschool teachers and their assistants from different generations and with various levels of education, employed in public and private preschool institutions in the same area. The data were collected through a questionnaire, quantitatively analysed and presented.
We have come to a conclusion that preschool teachers and assistants find interpersonal relations, communication and emotional contact with children as the most important links to hidden curriculum. They, however, underestimate the influence of their personality and their own expectations, which greatly affects the exact same events, not specified in the formal curriculum. In upbringing they prioritize the objectives developing communication skills, children's independence and self-confidence, but assign low relevance to discipline and consequently to punishment and forbidding. The daily routine is the same for all children and they are only given choice when choosing an activity or with shaping the preschool institution room, where children can individually express their preferences and suggestions. This should be applied to all aspects of daily routine; resting, feeding, transitions between activities, as well as arrivals and departures from preschool institution, which requires more frequent and detailed planning of activities by preschool teachers.
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