How can teachers’ entrepreneurial competences be developed? A collaborative learning perspective

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of collaborative learning in the development of teachers’ entrepreneurial competences in the school context at primary, secondary and vocational levels of education. Design/methodology/approach – The research is based on an interpretative and collaborative learning approach to teachers’ entrepreneurial competence development. The empirical work relies on teachers’ written learning reflections collected during the chosen training programme and applies an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) method to analyze the data. Findings – The findings demonstrate that collaborative learning can help teachers to adopt a more entrepreneurial teaching approach. The findings highlight that social interaction and collegial support are important “drivers” for building self-confidence, further showing that conceptual and pedagogical renewal leads to an in-depth understanding of the work role and its meaning in society. Research limitations/implications – The study is of an explorative nature and bound to a specific contextual setting in Finland. Therefore further empirical research is needed to affirm the study’s suggestions on the effects of other collaborative learning interactions. Practical implications – The research findings provide new insights for teacher trainers and policy makers on how to enhance entrepreneurial teaching competences. The study concludes with new directions for designing and managing teacher training programmes. Originality/value – The paper enhances the understanding of teachers’ entrepreneurial competences, the role of collaborative peer learning in this process and thus bridges the gap between teacher research and entrepreneurial competence literature.

How do Italian vocational teachers educate for a sense of initiative and entrepreneurship? Development and initial application of the SIE questionnaire

“…While Fiet (2001a) suggests that teachers should use a variety of teaching methods, for Fayolle and Gailly (2008) these should be selected on the basis of their previous effectiveness in delivering objectives, the nature of the audience, content and any limitations arising from the institutional environment. There is broad agreement that experiential learning or learning by doing, focused on practical activities and projects that interact with the outside world, helps learners develop entrepreneurial skills and attitudes (McLarty et al, 2010;Wang and Chugh, 2014;Lackeus, 2015;Peltonen, 2015;Penaluna and Penaluna, 2015).…”

“…These studies indicate that in order to do this, teaching staff have to become entrepreneurial themselves (Peltonen, 2015). For Gibb (2005) too, teachers should be more entrepreneurial in their practices and ethos, thus acting as entrepreneurial models for their students (Penaluna and Penaluna, 2015).…”

“…Entrepreneurial education challenges traditional teaching practices, which are geared towards paid employment, and aim to indoctrinate students to obey and to reproduce facts (Sagar, 2015); it improves students' motivation to learn, engagement and fosters deep learning (Lackeus, 2015;Sagar, 2015). The creative and innovative teaching methods of student-centred learning are therefore what entrepreneurial education requires (Gibb, 2005;Balan and Metcalfe, 2012;Bell, 2015;Peltonen, 2015;Penaluna and Penaluna, 2015). However, innovative teaching methods alone are not enough to promote effective learning: the theory of constructive alignment advocates coherence between learning outcomes, teaching and learning activities, and assessment (Biggs and Tang, 2011).…”

“…There is a need both for better exploration of how educators interpret entrepreneurial education (Hoare and Ruskovaara, 2015;Peltonen, 2015), and for tools that support teachers to develop their entrepreneurial teaching skills (Ruskovaara and Pihkala, 2013). A range of scholars have drawn both on the educational sciences and on entrepreneurship to propose conceptual frameworks for entrepreneurial education (Fiet, 2001b;Béchard and Grégoire, 2005;Solomon, 2007;Lackéus et al, 2016;Macht and Ball, 2016); however, pedagogical practices are very often dictated by experience rather than by systematic approaches (Fayolle and Gailly, 2008;Fayolle, 2013).…”

“…However, entrepreneurial education research has tended to be focused on learning outcomes, with little attention being paid to teachers' perspectives (Fayolle, 2008;Jones and Iredale, 2010;Peltonen, 2015). Many teachers are not familiar with the concept (Ruskovaara and Pihkala, 2015;Ruskovaara et al, 2016), or find it difficult to identify best practice and embed entrepreneurial education into their programs (Fiet, 2001a, b;Solomon, 2007;Seikkula-Leino et al, 2015).…”