Korean students have recorded high scores in international academic
achievement assessments in recent decades, steadily ranking among the
top in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) tests
and achieving high scores in mathematics and science in the Trends in
International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) ranking (Song et al.,
2013). Since the 1980s, Korea’s education attainment level has been the
highest of all OECD countries (OECD, 2009).
While Korean students have ranked among the highest performers in terms
of their academic achievements, these students have ranked among the
lowest in terms of interacting and cooperating with others (OECD, 2006).
Furthermore, although Korean students’ academic performance in PISA 2009
drew other countries’ attention to the country’s education system as a subject
of analysis for policy-making (Song et al., 2013), studies have revealed that
levels of interest in learning and efficacy are low in the Republic of Korea
(Choe et al., 2013).
The gap between efficacy and achievement levels may be caused by
competitiveness, with Korean students suffering from intense competition
in the college entrance examination (Choe et al., 2013). Furthermore, the
expansion of educational opportunities at lower levels of education has
increased competition for limited places in higher education institutions,
resulting in a feverish reliance on private tutoring, rising financial burdens
on parents and increasing social inequity (Lee et al., 2010). There is growing
concern that competitiveness in college entrance examinations and
reliance on private tutoring are obstacles to learning some of the skills and
competencies required for a knowledge-based society. The competitive
education system has therefore been criticized for failing to meet society’s
future needs. Lee, Kim and Adams (2010) emphasize that the education
system in the Republic of Korea needs to move beyond the current focus on
quantitative expansion.
The 2009 curriculum reform
Recognizing the need to change the existing education system, which
values academic achievements highly but neglects some of the skills and
competencies increasingly required in the twenty-first century, in 2009 the
Korean Ministry of Education developed a revised curriculum framework and
notified schools that it would be implemented from 2013.