An Assessment of Educators’ Level of Concern on the Adoption of Education 5.0: A Case of One University in Zimbabwe

Background: This study was an assessment of educators’ levels of concern on the adoption of Education 5.0: A case of a State University in Zimbabwe. Education 5.0 being a new curriculum reform in Zimbabwe which focuses on five pillars namely, research, teaching, community service, innovation and industrialisation. Educators are directly involved in implementing education reforms hence the importance of an assessment of their stages of concern towards the adoption of Education 5.0.

Methodology: A survey using 35 questionnaire items adapted from the Concerns-Based Adoption model was used to collect data from a sample of 28 lecturers derived from a population of 30. The researcher completed a score sheet using the responses from the questionnaires. Data on stages of concern was coded using Likert scale of 0 to 3. Data was analysed to measure stages of concern among the educators who are implementors of Education 5.0. by averaging the five items per stage to determine the level of concern among the educators. Standard deviation for each stage of concern was also calculated to determine variations among the educators’ level of concern.

Results: The study revealed that the educators had their highest intensity of concern under stage 2 (personal), followed by stage 5 (collaboration), and their least concern on stage 6 (refocusing), followed by stage 3 (management). These findings indicate that these educators are on the self-level of concern, much concerned about how they would personally be affected by Education 5.0 and least concerned about the task at hand, which is the implementation of Education 5.0.

Conclusion: The high intensity scores of educators’ concern at the personal and collaboration stages suggest that educators are more worried about how Education 5.0 adoption would affect them personally and also their significant others, students being part of this group. It is expected of educators to be concerned about how their students will be affected because students are part of lecturers’ most valued clients.