Investigation of teachers' individual innovativeness levels and their fidelity to the curriculum

In the study, it was aimed to examine the individual innovativeness and curriculum fidelity levels of classroom and branch teachers in terms of different variables and to determine the predictive relationships between teachers' individual innovativeness and curriculum fidelity levels. In the study, causal comparison and predictive research models were used together. The study population of the research consists of classroom and branch teachers working in the city center of Kütahya in 2023-2024. The sample of the study consisted of 397 teachers selected from this population by disproportionate cluster sampling method. "Individual Innovativeness Scale" developed by Hurt, Joseph, and Cook (1977) and adapted into Turkish by Kılıçer and Odabaşı (2010) and " Curriculum Fidelity Scale" developed by Burul (2018) were used to collect the data. Descriptive statistical techniques, two-factor analysis of variance, simple linear regression analysis and multiple linear regression analysis were used to analyze the data. As a result of the research, it was determined that teachers' level of fidelity to the curriculum was at a low level and their individual innovativeness was at a medium level. In terms of individual innovativeness categories, it was concluded that the majority of teachers consisted of questioners and pioneers, and the level of fidelity to the curriculum of skeptical and questioning teachers was significantly higher than that of innovative and pioneering teachers. It was determined that the level of fidelity to the curriculum of branch teachers was significantly higher than that of classroom teachers. It was concluded that being a class or branch teacher has a low level effect on curriculum fidelity and individual innovativeness categories have a medium level effect on curriculum fidelity. It was determined that there was no significant difference between the curriculum fidelity levels of the groups formed based on the interaction of being a classroom or branch teacher and individual innovativeness categories. It was concluded that teachers' individual innovativeness levels significantly predicted their level of curriculum fidelity. It was determined that the idea of leadership, openness to experience and risk-taking dimensions of individual innovativeness significantly predicted the level of fidelity to the curriculum, and the three predictor variables together significantly explained 17% of the total variance in the level of fidelity to the curriculum. It was concluded that the variable that predicted the level of fidelity to the curriculum the most was idea of leadership and the variable that predicted it the least was risk-taking. Keywords: Individual Innovativeness, Curriculum Fidelity, Class and Branch Teachers.