Teachers’ Adaptability to Vietnam’s 2018 General Education Program

Adaptability is a core competency of the 21st century and one of the key determinants of career success. The comprehensive reform introduced by Vietnam’s 2018 General Education Program, which shifts education from a content-based approach to a competency-based approach, has created numerous new requirements for teachers and requires them to develop strong adaptability. This study employed a cross-sectional research design, using a survey as the main research method. Data were collected from 726 teachers and educational managers to assess teachers’ adaptability to the new requirements of the 2018 General Education Program, which replaced the 2006 General Education Program. The results showed that teachers demonstrated higher levels of social adaptation than work adaptation. The areas in which teachers showed relatively limited adaptability included regulating their own emotions in response to new requirements and implementing competencybased teaching. The comparison by teaching seniority revealed that teachers with 1–5 years of experience faced many difficulties in adapting, although they also had certain advantages. Teachers with 6–20 years of experience showed the highest level of work adaptation, while teachers with 21 years of experience or more demonstrated the highest level of social adaptation. These findings have practical significance, as they provide an important empirical basis for the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training to develop appropriate solutions for improving teachers’ professional capacity and supporting their adaptation to educational reform.

1. .org/10.1080/09518390500082699