Curriculum Implementation and Reform: Teachers’ Views About Kuwait’s New Science Curriculum

The MoE (Ministry of Education) in the state of Kuwait is starting to reform the science curriculum in all school academic stages: primary (1−5) grades, intermediate (6−9) grades, and secondary (10−12) grades. The purpose of this study was to explore the opinions of science teachers about Kuwait’s new sixth and seventh grade science curriculum, which was implemented in 2008. This study focused on the teachers’ views regarding curriculum content and revealed the challenges and difficulties they face in teaching this new curriculum. Data were collected from 136 teachers’ questionnaires and four interviews. The findings indicated that the curriculum content did not help students work together and was not related to the students’ culture and society. The findings also showed that science teachers faced many challenges in teaching the new curriculum, like a lack of teaching tools in the schools and the fact that the MoE did not provide any course training related to the new curriculum. To conclude, the findings suggest that the new curriculum should be reviewed and modified with the teachers’ involvement.