Teachers' Self-efficacy and Job Pressure in Response to general requirements in the new educational curriculum in Vietnam

Teachers' self-efficacy perception has played an important role in supporting them in adapting well to new changes at work. One hundred fifty-eight high school Vietnamese teachers voluntarily participated in this study. Teachers' self-efficacy scale was used in this study. The scale was translated into Vietnamese, and quantitative data was collected via online questionnaires. Qualitative data was gathered during open-ended questions about teachers' specific pressure from changes in the general education curriculum in Vietnam integrated into the survey. Factor analysis confirmed the appropriateness of the teacher's self-efficacy scale in the context of Vietnamese teachers. The pressure decreased when teachers had confidence in the effectiveness of the strategies used in teaching. In addition, three other specific items were found that caused pressure on teachers regarding the changing of the new curriculum. The conclusions have contributed practical significance to studies of teachers' self-efficacy in the multicultural context. These have also made a theoretical contribution to the studies on teachers' self-efficacy in the new requirements that need to be met in changes in educational programs.


Resumen
La percepción de autoeficacia de los docentes ha desempeñado un papel importante a la hora de ayudarles a adaptarse bien a los nuevos cambios en el trabajo.Ciento cincuenta y ocho profesores vietnamitas de secundaria participaron voluntariamente en este estudio.En este estudio se utilizó la escala de autoeficacia de los docentes.La escala se tradujo al vietnamita y los datos cuantitativos se recopilaron mediante cuestionarios en línea.Se recopilaron datos cualitativos durante preguntas abiertas sobre la presión específica de los docentes debido a los cambios en el plan de estudios de educación general en Vietnam integrados en la encuesta.El análisis factorial confirmó la idoneidad de la escala de autoeficacia del profesor en el contexto de los profesores vietnamitas.La presión disminuyó cuando los docentes tuvieron confianza en la efectividad de las estrategias utilizadas en la enseñanza.Además, se encontraron otros tres ítems específicos que generaron presión a los docentes respecto al cambio del nuevo currículo.Las conclusiones han aportado importancia práctica a los estudios sobre la autoeficacia de los profesores en el contexto multicultural.Estos también han hecho un aporte teórico a los estudios sobre la autoeficacia docente ante los nuevos requisitos que deben cumplir los cambios en los programas educativos.eachers worldwide have faced many new and ongoing demands resulting from shifting policy expectations, educational curriculum changes, and societal changes (Klassen et al., 2009;Liu & Onwuegbuzie, 2012;Putwain & Von der Embse, 2019).The teachers' satisfaction, stabilities, motivation-commitment for jobs were more strongly influenced by their belief in self-efficacy (Tschannen-Moran & Hoy, 2001).Vice versa, teachers' selfefficacy (TSE) has been a necessary factor in determining the quality and success of curriculum education in schools (De Smul et al., 2018).
In 2013, Resolution No. 29/NQ-TW was promulgated by the Vietnamese Government on fundamental and comprehensive reform of education and training (Secretary, 2013).Two years later, Decision No. 404/QD-TTg approving a plan for reforming general education curriculum and textbooks was issued by the Prime Minister (Government, 2015).Next after, the Ministry of Education and Training has promulgated the new general education curriculum, which has specific requirements based on the competence approach (MOET, 2018a).Up to now, in 2023, the new general education curriculum has been implemented for one year at the upper secondary level.
Teachers play a significant role in education's reforming success.Hence, the Ministry of Education and Training issued Circular No. 17 Until June 2023, the new curriculum has been only implemented for one year at the high school.Before, teachers were asked to participate in the content of the ETEP training programme and apply it to their current teaching.This study has assumed that factors of TSE would influence the pressure that teachers are under as the educational curriculum changes in Vietnam.However, there is relatively little evidence of TSE in Vietnam.In junior high schools, teachers had perceptions of their teaching effectiveness, and decision participation factors were positively related to teaching teachers' efficacy and job satisfaction (Tran, 2015;Tran, 2016).Most recently, researchers have explored that school climate factors and staff autonomy had a direct positive impact on TSE (Nguyen et al., 2023).Researching the motivation and professional intention of preservice in Vietnam, TSE is analysed in three aspects: (i) Teaching skills, (ii) class management, and (iii) Importance of clinical experiences (teaching internship before working in service).Furthermore, in Vietnam, studies have yet to understand how requirements in newly imposed changes in curriculum relate in combination with TSE.This research is an initial effort to fill this gap.

Purposes of Study and Research Questions
The present investigation aims: (a) to explore TSE components regarding teacher pressures of teachers when changing the new education curriculum; (b) to examine sources of teacher job pressures in Vietnam during this change.The research questions for this study were the following: 1) How are TSE components about teacher pressures when the new changing curriculum? 2) During this change, what are the sources of teacher pressures in Vietnam? 3) To achieve these purposes, the research design was based on the TSE scale (Tschannen-Moran & Hoy, 2001), and major changes in the new education curriculum were simultaneously analyzed to understand teachers' pressure in jobs.

Teachers' Self-Efficacy
Based on social cognitive theory, (Bandura, 1997) has shown: "Perceived self-efficacy refers to beliefs in one's capabilities to organize and execute the course of action required to produce given attainments" (p.3).This definition implies that teachers with a high perception of instructional self-efficacy possess more suitable pedagogical behaviour in their classes.They also would have many good emotions on the job in order to help their students succeed.
Several studies have shown that TSE has supported strong boosting of collective teachers' efficacy and reduction of their burnout (Skaalvik & Skaalvik, 2007;Yu et al., 2015).TSE positively influences teacher job satisfaction (Klassen et al., 2013), student performance, and teacher effectiveness in teaching (Saeki et al., 2015).A strong sense of TSE has supported teachers in improving their psychological well-being and gives them greater job commitment (Kuyini et al., 2020).TSE is also influenced by other factors, the implementation of test-based explanation policies was a source of stress for teachers, related to TSE and negatively affected job satisfaction (Von der Embse, Pendergast, et al., 2016;Von der Embse, Sandilos, et al., 2016).Empowering the leadership behaviours of school principals has an effect that is moderate and positive on TSE (Dağlı & Kalkan, 2021).With regard to school climate aspects, TSE was positively impacted by a member of staff autonomy, affiliation, and innovation in the school (Nguyen et al., 2023).Supervisory support, relations with colleagues, and time pressure were school context variables that have been mediating effects on TSE and teacher burnout (Zeng et al., 2024).
To our knowledge, the TSE scale has been the most widely acknowledged with three components: (1) efficacy for instructional strategies, (2) efficacy for classroom management, and (3) efficacy for student engagement (Tschannen-Moran & Hoy, 2001).The strong relation between the three components of TSE was demonstrated in many studies (De Smul et al., 2018;Klassen et al., 2009;Von der Embse, Sandilos, et al., 2016).In addition, each component has been explored: Teachers have greater job satisfaction when they have greater instructional strategies; teachers with greater classroom management self-efficacy have the ability to resist better workload stress (Klassen & Chiu, 2010); Higher TSE in classroom management softens teachers' emotional exhaustion via students' disturbances in classrooms (Dicke et al., 2014); Teachers with more years of experience have been higher in student engagement self-efficacy (Klassen & Chiu, 2011).Regarding the teacher's demographic characteristics, no significant difference between male and female teachers was found in the TSE of Irish teachers (Reilly et al., 2014).However, in the context of Saudi Arabia, different teachers' gender and background education have affected their perception of self-efficacy (Alwaleedi, 2017).

New General Education Curriculum in Vietnam
The practice and application of knowledge to real life, as well as in extra-curricular activities, are focused on the new curriculum.Simultaneously, curriculum subjects are reduced than before, and new subjects are added, such as computer science and technology is the first supplement to the elementary curriculum level (MOET, 2018a).Stage learning in high school is called professional orientation; students will choose among social sciences, natural sciences, technology, and arts (Nguyen et al., 2020).More than one textbooks sets are allowed in the new curriculum, and provinces and schools can elect the corresponding book series suitable for their context (Nguyen et al., 2022).
The leader of the reform project curriculum, (Nguyen, 2017), explained how competence is conceptualized in his article.Then, the general education curriculum states the concept of competence (MOET, 2018a, 2018b): Competency is an individual attribute formed and developed by virtue of availability and the process of studying and practicing allowing people to synthesize knowledge, skills and other personal attributes such as excitement, belief, will, etc., to successfully implement one type of activity to achieve the desired results in specific conditions.(pp.37).
The aim of fostering and developing students' competencies is shown particularly through the requirements to be met in the program of each subject of the new curriculum.In addition, the plan for the high school graduation exam from 2025 will change compared to the present (MOET, 2023).
Hence, to respond to new changes, teachers' roles must change from knowledge transport to supporters of students' learning process to foster and develop their qualities and competencies.Teachers need reform in planning their schedules and selecting suitable teaching methods aligned with curriculum objectives and appropriate to students' current levels and specific conditions.This study explores the personal competencies of Vietnamese teachers, their relationship to changing work challenges, and their demographic characteristics.In the next section, the article presents methodologies of research, findings, and conclusive to contribute to TSE practically in other multiple contexts.

Methodologies Participants
Participants in this study were 158 teachers from high schools in Vietnam.They were voluntary participants in the survey and responded fully to the questionnaire.They are from different regions of Vietnam.There are 35 (22.2%) teachers from schools in urban areas and 123 (77.8%) in rural areas.All teachers participated voluntarily in this study.In which, the gender ratio of participants is 52 (32.9%) male and 106 (67.1%) female.The number of teachers with 10-20 years of starting official work is the highest, with 92 participants (proportion 58.2%).Teachers' demographics are shown in Table 1.

Sampling and Data Collection
The space to gather data was Facebook, and the sample was chosen incidentally.Participants completed an online questionnaire about demographics (genders, years of teaching, and type of region being taught in urban or rural schools), teaching efficacy, and pressure from new curriculum change.Teachers are informed that participation is voluntary, and the information provided is not identifiable and is for research purposes only.The data collection exercise took 15 days to complete end of May 2023 and the beginning of June 2023, as soon as the first school year when the new high school curriculum is launched at the end.The detailed demographics of participants in the study are shown in Table 1.

Instruments
The present study used the TSE scale (Tschannen-Moran & Hoy, 2001).The TES scale has included three components (with 12 items divided equally).Namely, the first component is the efficacy in teachers' instructional strategies (SE_IS) (4 items, M = 3.45, SD = .48).Correlation coefficient of .696 is consistent with the sample size.The second subscale is the efficacy in classroom management (SE_CM) (4 items, M = 3.66, SD = .55).Correlation coefficient equals .839.Finally, the third subscale is in students' engagement (SE_SE) (4 items, M = 3.46, SD = .56).Correlation coefficient equals .840.The TES scale's content validity has sufficient psychometric properties that it has been used in various studies with evidence of relevance in multicultural contexts (Klassen et al., 2009;Liu & Onwuegbuzie, 2012;Seng et al., 2020).Participants responded on a five-point scale "Nothing" (1), "Very little" (2), "Some influence" (3), "Quite a bit" (4), and "A great deal" (5).In the present study, the overall Cronbach's alpha correlations of all items have a value of .879,which is a good level of internal consistency was also achieved.
Based on an analysis of changes in the new high school curriculum, the study added three questions to explore teachers' pressures.Namely, (TP1) I have felt raised stress as a change to the recent new general national curriculum; (TP2) I feel apprehensive about meeting the predefined requirements of the new high school students; (TP3) I feel pressure because changes have changed the way design lessons, organize teaching, and evaluate students in the new general national curriculum.A full questionnaire was given to education experts to evaluate content validity and test well-suited translating Vietnamese.The revised final questionnaire was used, and participant teachers responded on a five-item Likert scale "Strongly Disagree" (1), "Disagree" (2), "Neutral" (3), "Agree" (4), and "Strongly Agree" (5).Indicates that teachers with a higher degree of perceived pressure will get higher scores (3 items, M = 2.95, SD = .94).Correlations coefficients amongst study variables by .899are good.Besides, a question for participants to self-assess their current situation: How would you rate yourself being pressured in the job?On a 5-point scale, from (1) Very Low to (5) Very High.Pearson Correlation between groups questions is statistically significantly correlated with r = 0,265 and p = .001.At the end of the survey, an open-ended question asked respondents to list specific factors contributing to their pressure during teaching according to the new curriculum.

Data Analysis
Firstly, descriptive statistics between participants' demographic variables (gender, experience teaching, and type of area where the school is located) and their stress levels due to changes in the new curriculum.Secondly, the study applied Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to examine an explanatory model of the variables.Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were applied to confirm the order and to estimate the construct suitability of the scale in the teachers' Vietnam context.Then, the study used other fit indices, to evaluate the goodness of fit of the model, four indices were utilized in this study, including (a) Chi-square goodness-of-fit test (χ 2 ), χ 2 /df, (b) the standardized rootmean-square residual (SRMR), (c) the root-mean-square error of approximation (RMSEA), and (d) the comparative fit index (CFI).In the following, a model was considered to have a good fit if all the path coefficients were significant p < 0.05, χ 2 /df was below 5, SRMR was below 0.08, RMSEA was below 0.08, and CFI was 0.90 or more (Hu & Bentler, 1999).
Finally, for qualitative data, the study used an inductive coding process to look for emergent themes in the teacher responses.Participant responses were recorded with the survey results.The researcher read repeatedly in order to become supremely familiar, then unitized data and each code was assigned a phrase.Explicating the meaning of each significant statement helps to formulate meaning and determined code, respectively.Unit codes could be in the same themes and similar in content.Hence, the researcher found each unique emergent theme is a represented cluster.

Quantitative Results
The first research question was answered when analyzing the research's quantitative data.As follows, the study found no correlation between the demographic variables of participants and components of TSE and pressure in jobs from changes in the new curriculum.The average score of teacher pressure (on a 5-point scale) is 3.15, of which the female is 3.14, and the male is 3.23.In particular, according to the number of years of work, the teacher with the longest seniority (over 20 years) has the highest average score of 3.43, and the lowest is the teacher who has years of experience for 6-10 years with a value of 2.97.Teachers in urban schools have a higher mean pressure score of 3.31 than those working in rural, which is a value of 3.10.
The study found no correlation between the demographic variables of participants and components of TSE and pressure in jobs from changes in the new curriculum.However, the exploratory factor analysis with Promax rotation was utilized.The results show that KMO and Bartlett's test coefficients have .847with p = .00meaningful statistics.This confirmed that the shortened ETS scale (12 items) suits Vietnamese high school teachers (factors loading from .587 to .879).Three factors were formed in exploratory factor analysis similar components of TSE (SE_IS, SE_CM, SE_SE).Overall, exploring all items then teachers' pressure also separated a factor, and the characteristics loading has changed slightly from .899 to .920(see Table 2).Although only the correlation coefficient between TP and TSE has not completely matched the statistical significance, with r = -.166 and p = .052.However, considering each component of the TSE with TP, namely, SE_IS and TP have r = -.199,p = .012.Negatively related instructional strategies self-efficacy with and pressure from the new curriculum.This means Vietnamese teachers who are higher in using teaching strategies will have less pressure from the new curriculum.Linear regression is used between these factors, and research outcome expectation offered an additional minor (Adjusted R2 change = 2,7%; B = -.332;β = -.166< 0) of teachers' pressure in the new curriculum.The instructional strategy of self-efficacy has explained 2,7% of the dependent variable, which is teacher pressure (see Table 3).Factor analysis shows a good fit of the model between the components of the Teachers' self-efficacy and the pressure from the program.In addition, Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypothesized models.The configural invariance model exhibited acceptable fit (χ 2 /df = 1.580, p = 0.001; RMSEA = 0.061; CFI = 0.956; SRMR = 0.034) (Fig. 1).

Qualitative Results
Teachers were asked respondents to list specific factors contributing to their pressure during teaching according to the new curriculum.Sources of pressure for teachers during changes to new educational programs of the second research question have been found.Three unique emergent themes were identified by qualitative inductive coding, including (a) school facilities, (b) students' uneven level (c) achievement pressure.

School Facilities
Teachers in high school stated inadequate equipment and school facilities have pressure on them to follow teaching the new program."Teaching equipment is not provided in a timely manner," commented a teacher.As reported by a physics teacher: "Organizing teaching activities in the classroom lacks time and facilities (experimental instruments, technic tools)."

Students' uneven Level
Students in the class have different levels, and the class is too crowded, so there is pressure or difficulty in organizing group teaching to foster capacity development (according to the new curriculum's requirements).In this study, with 77.8% of the teachers participating were from rural schools areas.Hence, rural teachers complained, "With the characteristics of students in rural areas, the ability to self-study, calculate, and basic knowledge is still weak, which causes many difficulties in forming new knowledge", or "Students in rural areas are leaning capality weak, so they do not meet the requirements of the lesson."

Achievement Pressure
Teachers stated that feeling pressured to participate in many competitions in a school year.Besides, based on students' outcomes to teachers' evaluations at the end of a school year.The following quotation was from a teacher who taught physics: In my province, the pressure of achievement, all teachers will be taken out for assessment at the end of the school year.Firstly, the school assesses, then sends it to the upper levels.The teachers will be moved to other schools if the results of their students are not good.
The new general education curriculum contributes to fostering and developing students' competencies.Along with this, the requirements also set out in the curriculum caused further pressure on teachers, and teachers in this study stated worry that their students are not getting good results according to the requirements about competencies.

Discussions and Limitations
While no significant years of experience differences in these variables in this study.But, the results indicate that participants with more years of experience felt more pressure from the new curriculum.Belief in self-efficacy increased in mid-career stage teachers and declined for teachers in the late career stages (Klassen & Chiu, 2010).Belief in reduced work efficiency is a good predictor of why these teachers' pressure on the job increases.As well, as the number of years of teaching and age increases, teachers' job satisfaction decreases, and occupational stress higher (Reilly et al., 2014).This is also a proposed direction following this study, especially in the context of Vietnamese teachers and general education.
In Vietnam, from 2017 to 2022, the Enhancing Teacher Education Program was done.Which, key high school teachers were fostered directly training, and then, these teachers were responsible continue for supporting and fostering their other colleagues locally through learning modules on the self-training website.The program has transformed the regular training model from the traditional to the new model, which is regular, continuous, on-site training.Teachers support each other at school and this saves a lot of time and effort (ETEP, 2022a(ETEP, , 2022b)).Notwithstanding, a quick survey shows that low income and needing parttime jobs to ensure life is a group factor to pressure for Vietnamese teachers.The second pressure factor for teachers is the changes in the new curriculum (Van & Hoi, 2022).The new program has been in place and the Vietnamese Ministry of Education is actively addressing and supporting related issues (French et al., 2023;MOET, 2022a).
The results of the study show that the teacher's self-efficacy scale has been suitable for Vietnamese teachers.Confidence in the effectiveness of the teaching strategies used has helped reduce the pressure teachers receive from changing the new curriculum.This is also a part of the recognition of the success of The Enhancing Teacher Education Program in improving the professional competence of Vietnamese teachers.However, within the limitation of the study, the sample participation is not much.It is the orientation for further studies with a larger sample size, specifically on the professional capacity of Vietnamese teachers with different subjects.
The problems of inadequate equipment and facilities were one of the factors that increased teachers' stress in their jobs (Abdullah & Ismail, 2019).In Vietnam, the new curriculum is designed to ensure basic and compulsory content for students nationwide.At the same time, the government allows localities and schools the necessary autonomy in developing teaching and learning facilities (Nguyen et al., 2022).The Vietnam Ministry of Education and Training has issued a list of minimum facilities and teaching equipment required for high schools (MOET, 2021).However, special teaching equipment for rural/mountain schools is still insufficient.The Ministry of Education and Training has continued to implement programs and coordinate with relevant agencies to attract budget sources to invest in school facilities, classrooms, and teaching equipment and standardize upland education (MOET, 2020a).
The narrowing of the educational gap between regions, besides facilities, is also the uneven level of students (Pham, 2021;Coxhead et al., 2022).The Ministry of Education is making an effort to close this gap in various ways.With differences between students in the same class, the new curriculum encourages teachers to incorporate differentiated instructions in their classrooms (MOET, 2018b).In addition, teachers' teaching autonomy is encouraged, promoting the initiative and creativity of professional teams and teachers in implementing the curriculum.Teachers can choose teaching activities that are appropriate to the content of knowledge, students, and school facilities so that students can meet the requirements specified in that subject's curriculum (MOET, 2020b).The Enhancing Teacher Education Program built the illustrated instructions to help teachers organize teaching and implement balanced education among groups of students in the same class.The form of online selftraining through the website also allows teachers in rural schools to easily connect and selfstudy regularly.
Regarding participating in competitions, Vietnamese teachers joined part in these activities to achieve 'qualifications' and supplement their 'professional identity' or the self reputation in the community (Hallinger et al., 2021).The competitions get 'positive pressure' on teachers because they bring teachers motivation, learning, and change.Conversely, they also have 'negative pressure' because they are worried about the possibility of 'non-success' and resultant loss of face.Students' learning results are one of the criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of teaching teachers.Within the scope of this study, there is no case study with a specific policy in education in a mountainous province of Vietnam.Hence, professional development is really required for teachers now.Teaching efficiency is enhanced, teachers' pressure is reduced, and improved students' learning (Tran et al., 2021).Although The Enhancing Teacher Education Program was ended, the self-study website is still used and can be accessed by teachers at any time to learn self-regulation at work (ETEP, 2022a).

Conclusion
Based on the results of this study, components of teachers' self-efficacy are suitable for Vietnamese teachers.Considering that teachers with a belief in higher self-efficacy (especially in used teaching strategies) will support reducing pressure and adapting well to new job challenges.The new curriculum has been statemented as a main measure to innovate general education in Vietnam is using the competence approach for teaching strategies/techniques, also examination, and assessment.Effective classroom management and Students' engagement in lessons are important for them to successfully fulfill the requirements set forth in the curriculum.This corroborates the really need for professional development programs for teachers and encourages them to self-study and self-regulate regularly.Annually, the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training still opens professional training courses for teachers at all school levels.These trainings are held locally in the summer and before the start of the new school year.Nonetheless, the organization and manner of these training courses need to change to be more effective.Instead of organizing concentrated classes for about one week and analyzing teaching methods for some typical lessons.Education departments need to identify teachers' difficulties promptly.Then, coordinate with some key schools to organize each subject sample teaching so that teachers can observe directly or online and learn from experience.
There is a difference between the pressure level of teachers with other years' experience and the type of in rural/urban teaching school areas.Facilities for schools and classrooms are still invested in and repaired every year.Especially with the development of the internet, teachers and students in rural/mountainous areas can fully actively participate in online classes.They can use network data to increase visualization in lessons.To meet the requirements to be achieved in the new curriculum, methods need to be integrated and continued.Frankly analyzing and forasmuch as the government is trying to close the 'education' gap between regions of Vietnam.
This research is limited, and the research direction is oriented toward following studies with a more significant number of participating teachers and self-efficacy in teachers with different subjects and grades of national Vietnam education system.In reality, many Vietnamese teachers have decided to leave their jobs in recent years (SGGP, 2023).Therefore, exploring more aspects that affect teachers in the process of educational innovation in Vietnam is necessary.In addition, studies contribute to the theoretical and practical aspects of teaching and education in a multicultural context.
/2019/TT-BGDDT dated 1/11/2019 on the promulgation of a training program for teachers of general education institutions (MOET, 2019).The Enhancing Teacher Education Program was established, abbreviated as ETEP, funded by the World Bank, under the results-based funding (PforR) model.The Ministry of Education and Training is the governing and coordinating agency, and the ETEP was due and finished at the end of 2022.The program has achieved the following main results: (i) The capacity of training and fostering teachers and administrators of general education institutions of pedagogical universities has been enhanced; (ii) Teachers and administrators are trained regularly, continuously, on the spot with an open learning material system, based on information technology, ensuring quality; (iii) Pedagogical universities are supported to develop a system of quality open learning materials for teachers and administrators of general education institutions; (iv) The needs, quality, and effectiveness of the training program for are assessed accurately and timely on the teacher training management information system (ETEP, 2022a; MOET, 2022b).

Table 2
Exploratory Factor Analysis and Factor Loading of the Study