A model to explain teachers’ stress during the implementation of the new mathematics curriculum

Abstract

In 2005 a new curriculum reform effort was started in Turkey. This reform was intended to change educational programs of all courses at all levels from elementary school to high school. With the implementation of the new curriculum, teachers were required to adapt to certain changes. Teachers are the key factors of reforms in education. Teachers’ concerns about reform and their reactions determine their attitudes and, in the long run their performance. One of the reactions to the reform is teacher stress. During the reform, change exacerbates stressful conditions already associated with teachers’ work and may introduce new sources of strain. Teachers feel stress during the implementation of new curricula. This study aimed to describe teachers’ levels of anxiety and their attitudes towards the new math curriculum and to explain stress during the implementation of the new curriculum within a framework developed mostly based on a test anxiety model. The proposed model was tested with the data gathered from 395 elementary school and mathematics teachers by using Structural Equation Modeling. Results indicated that the anxiety model mostly explained teachers’ stress and their attitudes towards the new curriculum. It was found that teachers’ readiness, efficacy, appraisal, anxiety, perceived pressure, perceived resources and attitude which were entered to the hypothesized model, were found to be related to each other. Coping, which was initially assumed to form a buffer for anxiety was not present in the final model. The results indicated implications for pre-service and in-service teacher education.