Identifying the prospective science teachers’ understanding towards entrepreneurial skills

Abstract

The aim of this study is to examine the prospective science teachers’ understanding towards entrepreneurial skills. This study, which 146 prospective science teachers of 3rd grade at two state universities in Turkey have participated in, is carried out through the survey method. The data of the research are gathered with “Entrepreneurship Test (ET)”. The acquired data are analyzed by using the content analysis method. It is observed that the relation between entrepreneurship and economy is particularly explained with several characteristics by about one third of prospective teachers, whereas the vast majority of them are unable to establish this relation or give meaningless replies as a result of the research. However, it is found out that the great majority of the prospective teachers are able to explain upon the opportunities of entrepreneurship on the basis of the cultural structure of society. It is seen that very few prospective teachers emphasize on creativity and innovation important in regarding to using entrepreneurial skill. Nevertheless, it is observed that integration of the prospective teachers’ sense of entrepreneurship with technology is inadequate. In addition, it is understood that the vast number of the prospective teachers are incompetent about how they will be able to use the nature and environment when they put their opinions into practice (in the process of business establishment). Moreover, it is revealed that very few candidates are aware of performing the operations such as determining the business idea, making a preliminary assessment of the business idea and questioning the feasibility of the business idea. Furthermore, it is determined that almost all candidates do not have information about the process and content of preparing a business plan. These results show that the prospective science teachers’ understanding towards entrepreneurial skill is quite weak.
 Keywords: Science, the prospective teacher, the entrepreneurship skill.

Investigating the Effectiveness of Life Skills Training Guide on Pre-service Science Teachers’ Development of Professional Knowledge Regarding Entrepreneurship Skills

“…The insufficient knowledge of science educators about entrepreneurship skills can also be seen as another reason for the weak prior knowledge of the pre-service teachers. Aslan (2021), Samanci et al (2020) found that pre-service science teachers' conceptual knowledge of entrepreneurship was insufficient. The same situation also emerged in the current study.…”

“…In Africa, especially in Nigeria, professional development practices on agriculture-based entrepreneurship education for pre-service science teachers have been implemented (Abdulmumini et al, 2020;Achor & Wilfred-Bonse, 2013;Blimpo & Pugatch, 2019;Eltanahy et al, 2020;Fejes et al, 2019;Pan & Akay, 2015). Some studies revealed that both conceptual knowledge (Aslan, 2021;Deveci, 2016;Deveci & Çepni, 2017;Samanci et al, 2020) and professional knowledge (İnaltekin et al, 2019) of pre-service science teachers in Türkiye of entrepreneurship are weak. Bayram and Çelik (2022) stated that the weak conceptual knowledge of entrepreneurship of pre-service science teachers can be enhanced through Technopark visits, while Kirman-Bilgin and İnaltekin (2022) found that it can be enhanced through both theoretical and practical training.…”