Engineering Students' Experiences in Studying Entrepreneurship

Abstract

Background Entrepreneurial learning, or the acquisition of entrepreneurial skills, in

Engineering students’ conceptions of entrepreneurial learning as part of their education

“…For the analysis, the transcripts were read several times by two different researchers, separately, in order to detect similarities and differences in expressions, and later on these results were compared and discussed by these two and a third researcher to ensure their mutual understanding (see Marton and Booth 1997;Bowden 2000;Åkerlind 2012;AUTHOR et al 2014). Similar quotations were brought together and preliminary categories of description were formed based on their differences (Marton, 1986).…”

“…In the model, the basic idea is to create learning environments and situations where the four basic elements of professional expertisetheoretical, practical, self-regulative, and sociocultural knowledge-will be integrated in problem-solving processes. With the aim to highlight entrepreneurial learning aspects, the original integrative pedagogy model was modified for the course on entrepreneurship in engineering (AUTHOR et al 2014). Integration of the four forms of knowledge was achieved by applying different pedagogical tools and practices based on socio-constructivist principles (e.g., Palincsar 1998;Tynjälä 1999;Tynjälä et al 2009).…”

“…A detailed course description, including the specific activities undertaken during the course, is presented in The Journal of Engineering Education (AUTHOR et al 2014), but the key characteristics that are based on the model and were applied in the entrepreneurship course are illustrated here in Figure 1. Learning-by-doing was the basic principle directing the pedagogical design.…”

“…The course was compulsory for all participants (for a more detailed description of the course, see AUTHOR et al 2014) …”

“…The interview guide is described in more detail elsewhere (AUTHOR et al 2014). All interviews were audio recorded, transcribed verbatim, and these transcripts were the focus of the analysis.…”