DOCTOR OF EDUCATION

Cluster of Education and Social Sciences

___________________________________________________________________________
SEPTEMBER SEMESTER, 2019
HPEF7033
COMPARATIVE STUDIES IN CURRICULUM CHANGE

ASSIGNMENT 1

NAME : OCTAVIUS BIN GULING

MATRIULATION NO : CGS02022931

MYKAD NO : 740825-12-5531

TELEPHONE NO : 0138787972

E-MAIL : octaviusguling@gmail.com

TUTOR : Dr. Laimah S.

LEARNING CENTRE: KOTA MARUDU LEARNING CENTRE

Teachers’ responsibilities toward curriculum change and
innovation through principal as a change agent.

Introduction
During ancient times, people taught their children the knowledge and skills to survive by
catching fish or hunting animals for food. They had no formal education during that time, but
their children learned and acquired the knowledge and skills for survival. So, during that time,
they already had a curriculum that other educators call as, the saber-tooth curriculum. This type
of curriculum refers to a kind of curriculum that existed during the ancient times in which the
purpose of teaching was for survival (Bae, Olkkonen, Allred, & Flombaum, 2015).

However, when the effects of discoveries and inventions became inevitable, ancient people’s
way of life had changed for the better. As a result, education became formal, and curriculum
development evolved as systematic, planned, purposeful and progressive, even today.

Curriculum defined:
The curriculum represents a conscious and systematic selection of knowledge, skills, and values:
a selection that shapes the way teaching, learning and assessment processes are organized by
addressing questions such as what, why, when and how students should learn (Isonzo Karst,
2016). Meanwhile, Yidana & Aboagye (2018) have given a simple definition of curriculum in
education, as a program of study and relationship between students, teaching staff and institution.
Addition to the above basic definition Alsubaie (2015) has found out that there are more to
explore in the school interaction among students, staffs, and institution. He stated that there are
several issues in the education system, especially in the curriculum field. The hidden curriculum
is one of the current controversial curriculum issues. Many hidden curricular issues are the result
of assumptions and expectations that are not formally communicated, established, or conveyed
within the learning environment (Alsubaie, 2015).

Curriculum may be concluded as a conscious and unconscious relationship between school and
student in providing knowledge and evoke positive change to students. Curriculums are guides
used by teachers in the school to assist in the education of students. It contains objectives,
activities units and suggested materials to enhance learning. It is that value-goal-oriented content,
existing as a written document or in the minds of teachers, that when energized by the school
will result in a change in students' behavior.

Change in education
There are almost as many conceptions of the change as there are writers on the subject, but
despite this, there are some broad areas of agreement on it. Robbins & Delenzo (2001:230) give
the definition of change:

“Change is an alteration of an organization’s environment structure, technology or people.”

Bell& Ritchie (2002:157) state that change is the way people improve. It is not going to go away
nor should it. Fullan (1992:22) claims, “Change is a process of learning new ideas and things. It
is learning to do and learning to understand something new”.

According to Kasuga, (2019), curriculum change refers to “any alteration in the aspects of a
curriculum such as philosophy, values, objectives, organizational structures, and materials,
teaching strategies, student experiences, and assessment and learning outcomes”.

Of all the definitions, people are given the idea that change is a process of improving your
practice. Change might involve various aspects and strategies which start and end with
individuals acting together in parallel to make schools effective. The goal of change is to bring
about successful development in a certain field. In education, the aim of the change is to improve
students’ way of learning (Sidhu, 2019).

In my opinion curriculum change is about improving the school practice in providing knowledge
and evoke positive change to students. This is in line with curriculum change refers to a process
whereby human resources are utilized to provide the successful implementation of innovation of
what is to be done at school with the aim of fulfilling the particular teaching and learning needs
and achieving the stated goals of the school (Yidana & Aboagye, 2018)
Curriculum Innovation:
Change is expected to do positive change but sometimes changes reverse to negative change.
Another concept added to curriculum change is innovation. Curriculum innovation refers to ideas
or practices that are new and different from those that exist in the formal prescribed curriculum.
Westerly (1969) and Richard (1965) (cited in University of Zimbabwe, 1995: 61), mentioned
that curriculum innovation is any improvement that is deliberate, measurable, durable and
unlikely to occur frequently. It is the creation, selection, organization, and utilization of human
and material resources in ways that result in the higher achievement of curriculum goals and
objectives. The difference between innovation and change lies in the fact that innovation is
always planned while change may occur in response to external events. For any curriculum
innovation to be meaningful and effective, it must be planned and organized. It is possible that
other types of changes may occur when they are not planned.

“Innovation resembles mutation, the biological process that keeps species evolving so they can
better compete for survival” (Hoffman and Holzhuter, 2012). Curriculum innovation connotes as
a modification of what was existing before the development of ideas, practices, beliefs that are
fundamentally new (Adaorah, 2012).

Innovation is defined as a significant change in selected key practices in education we focus on

questions that were asked in at least two waves of three international surveys (PISA, TIMSS, and
PIRLS) and build a few indicators that allow identifying changes in professional practices at the
classroom or school levels (Serdyukov, 2017).

I addition to that definition, I would like to suggest that to bring innovative change is to bring
something new or innovative idea into practice in the administrative or learning process with the
purpose of developing positive change to students in terms of spiritual, mental, social and
physical. Priestley (2011) supports and high-lights that curriculum innovation involves changes
in cultural systems, social systems, and individuals.

Concluding all the above definitions, innovation can be conceptualized as a modification to the
current practice into new effective strategies and practices to bring better results.
The relation of change and innovation is best pointed out by Print (2013) where change is an
adoption of an innovation, where the ultimate goal is to improve outcomes through alteration of
practices (Print, 2013).

Rational and benefit of curriculum change. Why curriculum need change?

Curriculum change rational

Due to the worldwide dynamics for change on account of technological developments, the
curriculum of a school is subjected to considerable pressure to change from its current situation
(Yidana & Aboagye, 2018). Writers highlight three major aspects of why curriculum needs
innovative change:

Curriculum change has been a universal, global tendency (Adu & Ngibe, 2014). What are we
doing to set up future generations to flourish in this changing scene? A student that begins
primary school today will graduate from university in the mid-2030s and their career will last
through 2060 or beyond. While we can’t foretell exactly what our future workforce’s needs, we
already know they are changing and will continue to change with the rate of technological
advancement. The technological environment in learning institutions has changed. Supported by
Shiundu & Omulando (2012), technological changes lead to changes in the values and norms of
society and thus put tremendous pressure on the curriculum.

Second is the Socio-political environment. Changes in the social and cultural structure in the
community at large put pressure on the need to change the school curriculum. Changing
government country aspirations will direct change educational policy which leads to curriculum
change. Curriculum change in schools reflects changes in society at large (Print, 2013).

The third contributor is the economic environment. Economic changes have had a significant
change in the country’s educational system (Shiundu & Omulando, 2012). Changes in the
economic environment influenced the curriculum to change in order to provide sufficient skilled
manpower to meet the demands of the local and the global society (Yidana & Aboagye, 2018).
The benefit of curriculum change
When various innovations are being introduced in the conventional course of study, it changes
the way students learn (Serdyukov, 2017) such as Deep Learning where students taught how to
apply knowledge in real-life situations (Lyke & Young, 2006). Innovation can be directed
toward progress in one, several, or all aspects of the educational system: theory and practice,
curriculum, teaching and learning, policy, technology, institutions and administration,
institutional culture, and teacher education. It can be applied in any aspect of education that can
make a positive impact on learning and learners (Serdyukov, 2017).

Curriculum changes seek to address improvement in the current curriculum for a better future of
students and the country as a whole. Innovative changes in the education curriculum have to be
made to produce creative, critical thinkers and skilled workforce to meet the demand for
the future. Well, the planned innovative curriculum will definitely benefit the future generation
in terms of social, economic and political advancement.

Processes and aspects involved in curriculum change and innovation.

We have seen and concluded various definitions of curriculum change and innovation but how
do we go about this change and innovation in an educational context? Valencic ( 2017),
Curriculum change is a learning process for teachers and for their schools. Good understanding
of change and clear conception of the curriculum are necessary conditions for improved
implementation of the new curriculum into practice. Curriculum change is a process that
involves changes in the educational systems, program structures, and objectives, leading to
changes in approaches to teaching and learning as well as changes to students’ learning
outcomes(Chan and Luk, 2013; Seehorn, 2012).

Curriculum Change and Innovation Process

Change is difficult to accept and maybe resisted by some stakeholders. By recognizing the value
of appropriate protocols, the administrator can be effective in implementing changes in an
organization's, behaviors, skills, technologies, laws, and strategies (Mahboob & Evans, 2015).
The change process can best be explained with change-management theory by Elearn (2007).
This process highlights four steps:
a) The stimulus for change and situational analysis: Although the curriculum has its own
learning outcomes and objectives which should be continuously revised. The stimulus for
change can either be external from global changes, government pressure, and pressure
from the community or it can be internal from leadership and senior management for
improving the quality of students' learning. This change demands leaders to define
mission, goals and strategies (Elearn, 2007)..
b) Communication with stakeholders: One of the keys to a successful curricular change is
the extended communication stakeholder and school. After the initial analysis, the
establishment of in-depth communication with internal and external stakeholders through
workshops, seminars, presentations about curriculum change is required. The aim is to
deal with fears, clarify confusions and lower down the resistance to change. The staff and
stakeholders need to be motivated for the change (Elearn, 2007).
c) Planning phase: comprehensible objectives are required to attain the mission goals. The
analysis of the expected outcome will enable the change team to advance to improve their
objectives. The curriculum change team can seek advice from sister organizations that
have undergone curricular reforms. The addition of public representatives in the
curriculum change team may help in identifying the health needs of the community. The
change team needs to encourage collaboration, integration, joint planning, and
communication between departments. A team of faculty members from each department
can act as change agents and specialists can be hired if required. The focus of the change
team should be the development of the staff skills (Elearn, 2007).
d) Implementation: The implementation of the new teaching, learning, and assessment
strategies require coordination and increased input from the faculty members, students,
and other stakeholders. The harmonization between different teams requires increased
communication at multiple levels. The implementation stage also requires the
mobilization of human and financial resources, and multiple tasking for some team
members (Elearn, 2007).
e) Monitoring/ transition management: The monitoring phase deals with unpredictable
and uncertain situations. There can be a performance dip due to the transition from one
system to another. Performance dip is the period of decline in organizational
 performance, usually associated with the implementation of a new program. It can be
overcome by responding to the needs of the stakeholders, celebrating successes, making
adjustments in the process, motivating the staff and students, and monitoring progress
toward the organizational goal. The curricular change team should adjust both short term
and long-term plans depending on deviations or unpredictable situations. This will
require frequent meetings of senior and junior faculty to cope with uncertain situations.
Moreover, the faculty has to look for areas of improvement as new ideas arise during the
implementation stage (Elearn, 2007).
f) Evaluation: The evaluation of the program requires feedback from students, faculty, and
other stakeholders. The evaluation of the process is compulsory for official recognition
and quality guarantee.

Benefits of this model

 This model offers ways and methods to understand an organization and get a deep insight
into the way it works.
 This model integrates both the emotional as well as the practical components of change
that is something that is important to create ways to enable employees to deal with
transition easily.
 This model considers all parts to be important and equally worth addressing and thus
does not leave out some aspects that may be of importance.
 This model also offers a directional factors to organizational change.

The aspect of Curriculum Change

According to Jehangir (2015), Change can be categorized into two types:

Hardware - These types of changes involve facilities provided by the institution such as
learning space, teaching aids, and learning materials. Currently, technological appliances are
widely used in a school settings such as projector, smartphone, digital books and including
class environment has totally improved compared to the traditional classrooms.
Software -Software types of change are about the contents and range of the curriculum itself.
The delivery method and timeframe are examples of software change. Pedagogy and
 methodology have gone to revolutionary change with the introduction of 21st-century learning
and deep learning.

Role of leadership in organizing and managing curriculum change.

Leadership is a process by which a person influences others to accomplish an objective and

directs the organization in a way that makes it more cohesive and coherent. This definition is
similar to Northouse's (2007, p3) definition — Leadership is a process whereby an individual
influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal. Leaders carry out this process by
applying their leadership knowledge and skills. Knowledge and skills contribute directly to the
process of leadership, while the other attributes give the leader certain characteristics that make
him or her unique.(Kumar Sharma & Shilpa Jain, 2013).

Leadership in schools comes in many forms and extends beyond the role of the formal leadership
roles, such as Principals and management structures. The principalship is often perceived to be a
position synonymous with school leadership. The importance of the principal in providing vision
and strategic direction for the school is critical to the overall direction of the school. In many
small schools, the principal may take on the role of leader and manager as well as curriculum
leader (Jorgensen, 2016). He continuously elaborates his point where he stated that curriculum
leadership may fall into the field of the principal but may also be part of a distributed model of
leadership where a key teacher may assume a role in leading curriculum innovation (Jorgensen,
2016).

From the opinion of Jorgensen (2016), we can adopt the idea that principals and the key teachers
are the leader in the school where they are responsible in setting the school course includes
managing curriculum change and innovation for school to be more effective.

In this paper, leadership is taken from the point that the principal is the agent of change in the
school curriculum even though other key teachers may be considered a leader in the school
curriculum change. Curriculum change is a challenge because it does not only change the
curriculum but it also involves a change in the role and implementation process. The principal
has to enhance and change roles in order to improved curriculum and innovation, benefit
students.

Principal role as a change agent:

i. Creating conducive school climate -Cited from the work of Fessehatsion (2017),
principals work to create a conducive school climate and to make reforms for sustaining
the quality of education. Principals are in charge of looking at the day-to-day activities
and programs of the school in collaboration with the school communities. They always
strive to ensure students’ achievement, harmonious collegial working cooperation,
effective communication, progressive instructional leadership, and efficient and
effective utilization of resources. School quality expectations cannot be materialized
without effective leadership. The principal is the key agent who can make effective
change in the curriculum thus produce an effective school.
ii. Managing and monitoring - It is the role of principals to make sure the change process
is happening toward the desired direction. The principal ensures that all members of the
school community clearly understand all parts of the change process and are committed
to the vision (Fessehatsion, 2017).
iii. Distributed leadership -The job of formal leadership in school such as the principal is
primarily to hold the pieces of the organization together in a productive relationship.
Their central task is to create a common culture of expectations around the use of
individual skills and abilities (Harris, 2004). The principal is like glue binding all the
school resources and produces desired positive change. In short, distributing leadership
equates with maximizing the human capacity within the organization. He added that
distributed leadership implies a fundamental shift in the way formal leaders view their
leadership roles and responsibilities when interacting with others.

The culture necessary to share traditional leadership roles and to empower teacher-
leaders must be established and fostered by principals and supervisors. Decision made in
the process of changing school curriculum for better cannot be made by the principal
alone rather than other teacher is given the opportunity to contribute an idea and in fact,
make their own decision based on given guidelines by the principal. Jamalul Lail Abdul
 Wahab et al. (2013) did also pointed out that in distributed leadership, not everyone will
make a decision. However, each individual can contribute to the process of decision-
making through their knowledge and expertise.

Comparative perspectives of curriculum change in global contexts.

What has changed in the global curriculum?

One major feature of the curriculum is that it changes to meet emergent realities and needs
of society. Curriculum resembles a dynamic system, where development is an ongoing
process that supports teaching and learning and achievement (Mkpa, 2010). During the
last decade, various efforts have been made in each country to remodel its education
system to bring it into line with social, economic, political, and cultural change. With the
advent of more innovative ideas and with the advancement of technology, the curriculum
seems to be changing even more to meet today’s needs and realities. Some of these have
been identified by Mkpa (2010), Priestly (2011) and Yates (2012) as:
a) There is a growing recognition that education and the curriculum should prepare
students for workplace, citizenship and daily living. Hence teaching and learning
processes are being focused on how to prepare students for learning, living and
thriving in the dynamic, cluttered, chaotic information environment of these first
decades of the 21st century as well as how to prepare students for a changing
world. Infusion of relevant and functional entrepreneurial skills using the relevant
subject contents also introduced.
b) Most national curricula incorporate higher-order thinking skills, multiple
intelligences, technology and multimedia, the multiple literacies of the 21st century
and authentic assessments. This increased emphasis on skills and dispositions,
which are perceived as relevant to lifelong learning, employment, and social
participation.
c) Life-long learning, creativity, Science, Technical and Vocational Education,
Mathematics and global citizenship skills are part of the curriculum in all countries.
Even in countries where the curriculum is structured in terms of individual subject
areas, an interdisciplinary approach to learning is increasingly encouraged.
d) Currently, a movement is toward Information and Communications Technology,
low-cost, portable handheld devices for student use that can be connected through
global networks and tailored for specific tasks or applications. These advancements
in technology are leading to a multitude of approaches that are blending in set of
curriculum that caters to the needs of learners worldwide.

Directions and issues of concern in managing curriculum change and innovation.

The traditional purpose of formal school is to facilitate and develop young learners and
assist them in their transition into an adult (Benavot, Braslavsky, and Truong, 2007).
Such is the impact which systematically curriculum has taken place.

But this traditional purpose is changing due world the current trend and demand. Now,
formal school is not regarded as the means that serves to enhanced and established
changes in ideology such as to reinforce social and cultural norms, support economic
growth, enforce legitimacy of political principles, foster advancement of scientific
knowledge and technical application. The view on education has moved beyond its
previous purpose. In terms of economy, education is more than merely supporting
economic growth and creating the “new economic man” (Kamens & McNeely, 2010).
Instead, education is targeting on supplying labors to the rapidly changing economic and
cultural landscape. The purpose of formal school is changing so the curriculum needs
change. Curriculum change is unavoidable in order to meet the demand of the ever-
changing world. According to Emesini, Ogah & Eze, (2013), changes in the society
bring about challenges, needs and problems that require updated knowledge and skills to
address them and hence curriculum changes become an unavoidable phenomenon.

Rosemund (2017) proposed three-level of curriculum discourse:

A. Institutional discourse – This discussion is about curriculum and the practice in
the classroom or educational system. The concern to this area is whether the
current curriculum is still effective in producing highly skilled human resources to
meet present economic and cultural demand. Curriculum change pertains several
issues such as curriculum content, teaching and learning process, assessment,
 availability and utilization of time, training and staff development, physical
facilities. (Paramasivam & Ratnavadivel, 2018).

Example of Issue:
a. Malaysia is currently on the phase of implementing PAK21 (Pembelajaran Abad
Ke-21) where it replaces the old conventional practice of spoon-feed type of
teaching and learning approach. In attempts to instill each pupil with 21st-century
skills, teachers face a great challenge since there are many 21stcentury skills to be
instilled in limited teaching times (Yunos, 2015). The attempts to instill 21st-
century teaching and learning among pupils are quite difficult as the pupils have
different previous knowledge, passionate, motivation and learning style.

b. In 2011, a curricular reform of primary education in Malaysia known as the

Standard Curriculum for Primary Schools (SCPS) was implemented for all taught
subjects including English. The aim of the English language curriculum reform
was to place great emphasis on the development of student communicative
competence through interactive, learner-centered teaching approaches. The
findings revealed that the SCPS was not fully understood by the teachers and top-
down, cascading of the curriculum process was largely ineffective. They also
highlighted incongruence between the curriculum policy and classroom practice.
The findings suggest there is a need to revise the SCPS documentation, to
evaluate the curriculum dissemination process, and to support teachers in
curriculum implementation at the classroom level.
c. Curriculum change affected teachers in a way because teachers were not sure on
how to implement the new curriculum introduced. They, (teachers), were
confused and stressed and then that led to the underperformance of learners in
some schools. The researchers feel that continuous change affects the effective
teaching and learning. The changes in curriculum make the teachers struggle to
reach the expected learner performance for some time until they master it. Within
that period, the existing curriculum is modified by the department of education.
They are required to shift from what they have practiced and achieved and focus
on the new policy statement brought to them. Teachers are not involved in any
 planning of the new curriculum and also in being the part in decision making, but
they are the ones who are hands-on in implementation.
d. Another example of this level was Curriculum change of 2007 in Tanzania. In
2007 the MoEVT introduced the ICT Policy for Basic Education to guide the
integration of ICT in Pre-primary, Primary, Secondary and Teacher Education as
well as non-formal and adult education. In the implementation of this policy,
ICT/information and computer studies subjects were introduced to primary,
secondary and teacher education (MoEVT, 2007). It was during this time when
teachers were required to have Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge
(TPCK) to master the teaching of the competence-based curriculum. This was a
movement that probably raised the retooling project which was conducted in
2014-2015 in Tanzania with an emphasis on the use of ICT to simplify teaching
the complex topics in science subjects and mathematics (Kasuga, 2019).

These are among the few examples of curriculum discourse on an institutional

level. Is this change will result according to aspired objectives? Yet it is to be
proven.

B. Political discourse – the second and third discourse level of curriculum change is
about political discourse. Politics in education and curriculum is an inevitable
phenomenon as it influences the curriculum from the beginning stages of
curriculum planning to curriculum evaluation (Kasuga, 2019). Curriculum
politics is seen as part of the overall process of government and involves
decisions about content such as what body of knowledge should be included or
excluded from the curriculum (Joseph, 2015). The government sees that there is a
need to change the school curriculum because of the specific social issues of a
political issues. Or change is needed because of social and political has changed
over a period of time.
Example of Political and social discourse:
a. As the world entered the new millennium, advancements in information
technology and globalization have made English language proficiency
imperative for developing countries such as Malaysia, as most knowledge-
based information is in the said language. In a drastic attempt to address
the decline in English proficiency, the government reintroduced English as
a medium of instruction for Maths and Science in 2003. However, this
initiative was met with resistance right from its initiation from various
groups. Mother tongue advocates argued that the move will marginalize
the potential for the vernacular languages to develop as a language of
knowledge and may lead to mother tongue endangerment (Azman, 2016).
b. The Standards-Based English Language Curriculum (SBELC), which was
introduced in 2013in line with KSSR, gives equal emphasis to English
literacy skills as to English communication skills, as core elements in the
language curriculum. The curriculum reform aims for at least 90% literacy
acquisition by the end of year 3 (or lower primary level) of the child’s
primary education on the LINUS LBI 2.0 program. Even though the
implementation of the LINUS 2.0 initiative appears to show plausible
improvement in the students’ English language proficiency, its operation
has encountered some problems thus far. Early investigations into the
effectiveness of the literacy intervention program for English literacy
found that the English teachers, unlike their Bahasa Melayu and Math
counterparts, have to double up as remedial teachers as well (Azman,
2016).

c. A prominent example from the international case was the hot debate
among academics and the public at large in Tanzania is to whether
Kiswahili should be used as a medium of instruction throughout all levels
of education (Vuzo, 2010).
 The intention by the government might be ideal but this will create a big issue
since it might clash with the social aspiration and present condition or current
resources might not support the need for change in the curriculum.

Issue and Implication of curriculum change - innovation to teachers

Teachers play an important role in the implementation of curriculum innovation. Without
active teacher involvement, the goals of the planned curriculum are difficult to achieve. In
general, teacher involvement in the process of implementing curriculum innovation in
schools varies with the challenges and barriers to effective implementation. Among these
obstacles is the attitude of some teachers who are willing to confront the school even when
the necessary facilities have been met by the school administration.

In the meantime, the implementation of innovation also faces obstacles due to the presence of
anxiety, conflict, insecurity, and difficulty of teaching to convert existing practices into new
ones. There are still psychological barriers such as uncertainty in the use of advanced tools
including electronic devices and computer and telecommunications technologies. The
existence and concern of curriculum changes that involve the use of technology are classified
as technophobia.

The specifics of the teacher's commitment to implementing innovation in the classroom also
affect the extent to which teacher involvement is as diverse as the curriculum transformation.
As a consequence, this commitment will influence teachers' perceptions of the
implementation of the innovation itself. Furthermore, the perception of the teacher will
influence the attitude and behavior of the teacher in the teaching and learning process.

In realizing the transformation of curriculum innovation in schools there are various

challenges that must be met in order for it to be implemented effectively. Different teachers’
demographic backgrounds, school location, teachers' abilities and abilities in terms of
motivation, attitude, knowledge, and skills will determine the level of teacher readiness to
implement the innovation itself. Teacher motivation is a key factor in implementation,
innovation in schools. Previous studies have concluded that workload, teacher competence
and the way teachers respond to their educational practices will be most effective if their
motivation level is high. Motivated teachers in this context refer to highly qualified
educators. Motivated teachers in this context refer to highly qualified educators in
accomplishing tasks effectively, day-to-day: Competitive, creative, positive and focused on
achieving educational goals. In addition, highly motivated teachers will always have an
intrinsic and extrinsic impetus that will enable them to come up with good ideas and help the
school organization regardless of deadlines.

The question is, do teachers have a level of motivation that can spur transformation and thus
empower the curriculum as a whole. The general view is that most teachers are less
comfortable with the introduction of an innovation in the school because they fear that such
changes will disrupt their comfort and affect their duties and roles either directly or indirectly
in relation to the teaching and learning process.

This is because of the increasing role of teachers as the introduction of innovation raises the
emotional stress of some teachers. Emotional disruption and high levels of stress are
influenced by their inability to respond to such innovations. If the stress persists then the
motivation of the teacher's work will be affected and it is likely that the teacher-student
relationship with the teacher will be strained. This may ultimately affect the teacher's self-
development and teacher effectiveness in the day-to-day workload of the school.

At the same time, it was found that teachers with low levels of motivation tend to resist a
move because of low self-esteem and isolation in the school. This situation is largely due to
the attitude of the school administrators who often ignore them and do not seek the views of
teachers in relation to the implementation of an innovation.

Teachers' readiness to implement innovation is an important question that must be considered

by educational planning so that there is a harmony between the innovation practitioner (the
teacher) and the innovation planner himself. Implementation of innovation will be hindered if
education authorities consider educational innovation a necessity, while teachers see it in the
opposite view.

The curriculum innovation process should also be able to change and subsequently bring
about a new paradigm shift from a tendency in its implementation process to a focus on
technical aspects such as the provision of tones and training on aspects related to teacher
behavior, norms, attitudes, and school culture change.

Summary and conclusion

Schools need to be ready to change with the times. The trend of curriculum change in
Malaysia has grown significantly in recent decades and is expected to continue in line with
the changing demands of mainstream and global education. As such, educators no matter
where and where they should take the opportunity to strengthen the curriculum at the school
level and at the same time enable our education system to sit low and stand high in the
education world.
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