Educational reforms as paradigm shifts: Utilizing kuhnian lenses for a better understanding of the meaning of, and resistance to, educational change

Research acknowledges that reform efforts in education often face resistance, particularly
on the part of teachers. This study attempts to get to a better understanding of the reasons of
resistance to change on the teachers' side through utilizing the structure of scientific revolutions
as described by Thomas Kuhn as an analogy. To this end, a recent curriculum reform
in science education in Turkey is taken as a case. The previous and new biology curricula
are analyzed comparing their emphasis, approaches to the nature of scientific knowledge,
theories of learning, and models for teaching and approaches to the assessment of learning.
This analysis revealed that the curriculum reform experienced in Turkey has introduced a
new conceptual and theoretical framework for teachers, which is fundamentally different
from the previous one. To this end, the study discusses that understanding the new paradigm
introduced by the new curriculum could be one of the major barriers that teachers face
in the implementation of the curriculum reform.