ENGLISH TEACHERS’ DIFFICULTIES IN DESIGNING LESSON PLANS BASED ON THE 2013 CURRICULUM IN JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOLS IN BENGKULU CITY

The objectives of this research were; 1) to investigate the difficulties faced by Junior High School English teachers in designing Lesson Plans based on the 2013 curriculum, and 2) to investigate the most difficult component of the Lesson Plan considered to be written by them. This research employed a mixed-method approach with a sequential explanatory design involving 30 Junior High School English teachers in Bengkulu City. The data were gathered by using questionnaire with a total of 35 items and a semi-structured interview addressing issues related to teachers‟ difficulties in designing the lesson plan based on the 2013 curriculum. The questionnaire was constructed based on the Regulation of the Minister of Education and Culture of the Republic of Indonesia No 65 in 2013. Prior to it being distributed to the respondents of the research; the content was validated by expert judgments and then a pilot study was done. Then, the construct validity was tested by using Pearson Product Moment. Furthermore, the reliability of the questionnaire was tested by using Cronbach‟s Alpha. The findings revealed that the English teachers had difficulties in designing the lesson plan in four components, namely indicators, learning objectives, learning materials, and assessment, whilst the assessment component was identified as the highest difficulty faced by them. Moreover, the results of the interview revealed that those components were difficult for the teachers caused of some factors, namely lack of knowledge of lesson plans, over teaching hours, and teaching and learning situation during the COVID-19 pandemic. These findings give information about the ability of Junior High School English teachers in designing the lesson plan based on the 2013 curriculum in Bengkulu City. Keywords: English teachers, lesson plan, the 2013 curriculum