An Informal Assessment of Twenty-First-Century Skills Developed Through Hidden Curriculum in Theatre Studies

Abstract

Arguably more than any previous generation, students graduating from university programs in the twenty-first century need a comprehensive repertoire of essential skills for their rapidly evolving world. Undergraduate theatre training offers a wide range of those skills. In response to Glen Nichols’s prompt for the CATR panel discussions, I conducted an informal assessment of skills that are generated in Canadian theatre programs (2017) based on an available 1994 rubric for “Arts Education Standards and Twenty-First Century Skills.” 1 Analytical reasoning, information literacy, invention, self-direction, collaboration, and technological integration are examples of the competencies developed through effective undergraduate theatre studies programs; however, they are often the “hidden curriculum” (Jackson) little recognized by theatre educators and university administrators. There are limiting factors in the successful mining of the hidden curriculum for the benefit of our students including a lack of adequate teacher training for existing and incoming faculty (Pagen 223). Notwithstanding these factors, undergraduate theatre programs can provide a forum for the development of necessary skills for the twenty-first-century student.