Entrepreneurship Education

Author | View as single page | Feedback/Impact

Classroom Pedagogy

The use of teachers’ questioning to extend and deepen understanding was often weak;   In some cases there was an over-reliance on a limited range of activities and missed opportunities to engage students by building on their existing knowledge and experience.

Successful courses made effective use of real-world examples and of information and communication technology (ICT). 
Source: Economics, Business and Enterprise Education June 2011, No 100086

In primary schools....the activities and tasks to be performed are simpler, and programmes have a shorter duration than found in secondary schools (for instance 2-3 months, or just the time needed to develop a specific project). The methodology will be more oriented towards learning by playing, through experimentation and games. Emphasis will be rather on attitudes (team working, initiative etc.) than on business skills. Activities already existing inside the school will be often used (like organising a bazaar, raising money for a school trip, etc.), or the student company may be organised around a certain event (like selling products at a School Fair).
Source: Best Procedure Project: Mini-Companies

Key features of an ‘Effective Entrepreneurship Education Environment’

  • Quality exposure to enterprising individuals;
  • An understanding amongst the students of the motivation and objectives behind the exercises that they are taking part in, e.g.. to develop competencies related to creativity and initiative, and the skills needed to take risks, as well as to run businesses effectively
  • Experiential and hands-on learning to enable students to have fun, retain the outcomes of the learning experience and gain a sense of accomplishment that builds their self-confidence;
  • Tasks which give learners responsibility and ownership of activities in order to promote the emergence and implementation of innovative approaches to problem solving; and
  • Teachers with 'know-how' of enterprise principles, of how to communicate and enthuse people about the central issues and of how to support students' self-directed learning

Source: Towards Greater Cooperation and Coherence in Entrepreneurship Education Report and Evaluation of the Pilot Action High Level Reflection Panels on Entrepreneurship Education Section 4.4.4