Factors Affecting Korean Secondary-School English Teachers’ Adoptions of the 2015 Curriculum

This study examines factors affecting secondary-school English teachers’ adoption of the 2015 revised curriculum and the extent of their impacts on the successful implementation of the curriculum ahead of the 2015 implementation. A questionnaire was administered to 93 secondary English teachers related to teachers’ competency, attitude toward the curriculum, knowledge about the curriculum, and school context. After confirming correlations between these factors, several causal flows were identified through a path analysis using Amos. The most influential factor regarding teachers’ willingness to implement the new curriculum was positive attitude toward the curriculum. The next influential factor was knowledge of the curriculum. The last influential factor, cooperative relationships between fellow English teachers, indirectly influenced their willingness to implement the curriculum (mediated by knowledge of the curriculum). These results reveal what efforts are needed to implement the 2015 revised curriculum at the class, school, and governmental policy level.