Uncovering the Hidden Curriculum in Engineering: Implications for Educational Practice

Dr. Idalis Villanueva Alarcón, Associate Chair and Professor in the Department of Engineering Education at the University of Florida

When the hidden curriculum is unaddressed or acknowledged in learning and working environments, unintended consequences can occur among learners (e.g., student attrition, low sense of belonging, demotivation towards the profession). In the engineering classroom, research has shown that an unattended hidden curriculum negatively impacts how students perceive the engineering discipline and their fit to the field. With small changes in educational practices, hidden curriculum can be flipped to promote student motivation, performance, and persistence. Dr. Villanueva will provide a brief overview of the hidden curriculum in engineering education and provide simple, practical tips and strategies in engineering education practice.

All are welcome! Please register on Zoom.

  About the Speaker

Idalis Villanueva Alarcón, Ph.D., joined the Engineering Education Department in the University of Florida at Gainesville in summer 2020 as an Associate Professor. Prior to this position, she was an Assistant Professor of Engineering Education at Utah State University and before that, she was a Lecturer in the Fischell Department of Bioengineering at the University of Maryland at College Park. She has a Ph.D. in Chemical and Biological Engineering from the University of Colorado-Boulder and a postdoctoral degree in Analytical Cell Biology from the National Institutes of Health. Her research interests include hidden curriculum in engineering, mentoring of minoritized students and faculty in science and engineering, and study of motivation and learning pathways in science and engineering education using mixed- and multi-modal tools (biological and physiological). In 2019, she received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) award for her 2017 NSF CAREER project on hidden curriculum in engineering. Most recently, she received the Educator Achievement Award – Higher Education in the 2024 Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) Technical Achievement and Recognition (STAR) Awards.