The Informal Curriculum: The Latent Aspect of Psychological Training

It has been argued that the nature of academic school psychological programmes and the training provided by them are revealed mainly by the informal and often more latent, messages delivered to students. These informal messages indicate the extent to which the programme treats students as partners in a complex learning process who may participate in determining its course or as those who should be informed; they may regard students as developing adults capable of responsible problem solving in the school setting or as those who still have to learn by watching others; and they determine the complementary roles of students and faculty members. We posit that these informal determinants of the training programme determine to a large extent the role definition of school psychology that guides them and is conveyed to the students.