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During this data related to entrepreneurship education a global consideration from practice by patricia g.
1
Executi ve Summary
Entrepreneurshi p Educati on: A Gl obal Consi derati on From Practi ce
to Pol i cy Around the Worl d
By Patricia G. Greene, Candida G. Brush, Elaine J. Eisenman, Heidi Neck, and Sam Perkins
With contributions from The Finnish Lifelong Learning Foundation, Tsinghua University, and
Qatar University
Entrepreneurship, traditionally defined as starting a new business, is increasingly recognized
and touted as a way to drive the development and sustainability of economies around the
world. Previous and ongoing research has advanced entrepreneurship education as essential
for influencing attitudes, aspirations and intentions of individuals striving to launch new
ventures. This report broadens the definition and impact of entrepreneurship education. We
do not limit our definition of entrepreneurship to starting a business, but rather use starting a
business as a vehicle to develop an entrepreneurial mindset while also developing a robust set
of twenty-first century life skills that can be used to start and grow new things of all kinds. As
a result we define entrepreneurship education as a method whereby students (of all types)
practice creating, finding, and acting on opportunities.
Over the past three decades, entrepreneurship education has grown dramatically, from 600
colleges and universities offering courses in 1986 to more than 5,000 courses at 2,600
schools today. In spite of this growth, insufficient attention has been given to the importance
of policies and programs, and minimal guidance has been offered on how to support this type
of education and on what policies are needed. This report is intended to help fill that gap
through its three principal objectives.
• Showcase best and forward-looking practices and new ideas in entrepreneurship
education
• Provide recommendations and implications to inform practitioners and policy makers
• Identify provocative questions that will drive further research
2
The report draws from four countries, with varied approaches to entrepreneurship education,
within which to compare best practices – United States, China, Finland, and Qatar. The
United States has had the longest history in teaching entrepreneurship. China represents an
emerging powerhouse of education and commerce. Finland has long been known for its
innovation in education at all levels. And Qatar represents a region dominated by the oil
industry yet looking to entrepreneurship to diversify its economic activity. Each country
developed three short exemplar cases, one for each segment of education: K-12/Secondary,
College/University, and Vocational/Training programs.
Generally, entrepreneurship education consists of a nested set of activities (curriculum, co-
curricular activities, and research efforts), and decisions regarding such activities include
everything from learning objectives, topics, selection of materials, pedagogy, learner type and
delivery mechanisms. Research regarding the effectiveness of entrepreneurship education has
grown over time and expanded beyond measuring new business formation to assessing the
increase in positive perceptions of entrepreneurship and intentionality towards being
entrepreneurial. Emerging findings suggest that there is indeed a positive relationship between
entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial behaviors, yet the research is inconclusive and
more work is needed.
The analysis of the twelve cases reveals an array of best practices and related implications for
practice, policy, and research. Critical themes include: multiplicity of objectives, variety of
curricular content, role of faculty, diversity of learners, importance of place, methods of
leveraging resources, and pedagogic innovations. The report discusses these themes through
specific case examples and concludes with a series of recommendations for policy makers,
practitioners and academic researchers.
1) Develop Teachers: Establish program standards, training programs and assessment
tools that encourage teachers to acquire and employ skills and behaviors that enable
them to function as facilitators and guides to learning – rather than as traditional
classroom instructors.
2) Expand Ranks of Learners: Make entrepreneurship education compulsory for all
learners in primary, secondary and perhaps even tertiary levels, because of its
effectiveness at instilling “twenty-first century“ skills, in addition to venture creation skills.
3) Facilitate Sharing of Content and Pedagogy: Create a clearinghouse of leading-edge
curricula and pedagogic methodologies. Much good work has been done in this field
over the past decade, and many institutions are willing to share their curricula and
teaching methodologies.
3
4) Overhaul Pedagogy and Place: Revamp instructional standards and classroom
paradigms to promote team-based, action-oriented learning in spaces designed to
enhance collaboration and creativity that includes real world interactions with
entrepreneurship practitioners and with target markets for new products and services.
5) Expand Access to Resources: Increase funding for entrepreneurship education and
develop and promote innovative mechanisms to leverage partnerships with
corporations, NGOs, global institutions, foundations, as well as with individuals.
Recommended research trajectories to advance entrepreneurship education.
1) We need to define and assess an array of learning outcomes to better understand the
impact of entrepreneurship education. This requires creating and experimenting with
various metrics beyond starting a new venture and also includes a consideration of
different types of entrepreneurial learners, and assessing impacts across multiple
institutions and countries.
2) Though we recommend compulsory entrepreneurship education at the
primary/secondary level, we strongly urge researchers to not only look across schools
where this is taking place but to research stakeholders within the ecosystem. Primary
and secondary teachers, as well as parents and administrators, need to have a better
understanding of what entrepreneurship is and can be in their education systems.
3) Great examples and best practices abound—as evidenced in this report. The larger
issue to address now is scalability of programming. Entrepreneurship education
requires a hands-on, active, and experiential approach. These approaches are hard to
scale when large numbers of students are involved. How might we scale innovative
educational programs? When and how might technology be helpful? What is the
effect of technology clusters on entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurship
ecosystems?
doc_317548400.pdf
During this data related to entrepreneurship education a global consideration from practice by patricia g.
1
Executi ve Summary
Entrepreneurshi p Educati on: A Gl obal Consi derati on From Practi ce
to Pol i cy Around the Worl d
By Patricia G. Greene, Candida G. Brush, Elaine J. Eisenman, Heidi Neck, and Sam Perkins
With contributions from The Finnish Lifelong Learning Foundation, Tsinghua University, and
Qatar University
Entrepreneurship, traditionally defined as starting a new business, is increasingly recognized
and touted as a way to drive the development and sustainability of economies around the
world. Previous and ongoing research has advanced entrepreneurship education as essential
for influencing attitudes, aspirations and intentions of individuals striving to launch new
ventures. This report broadens the definition and impact of entrepreneurship education. We
do not limit our definition of entrepreneurship to starting a business, but rather use starting a
business as a vehicle to develop an entrepreneurial mindset while also developing a robust set
of twenty-first century life skills that can be used to start and grow new things of all kinds. As
a result we define entrepreneurship education as a method whereby students (of all types)
practice creating, finding, and acting on opportunities.
Over the past three decades, entrepreneurship education has grown dramatically, from 600
colleges and universities offering courses in 1986 to more than 5,000 courses at 2,600
schools today. In spite of this growth, insufficient attention has been given to the importance
of policies and programs, and minimal guidance has been offered on how to support this type
of education and on what policies are needed. This report is intended to help fill that gap
through its three principal objectives.
• Showcase best and forward-looking practices and new ideas in entrepreneurship
education
• Provide recommendations and implications to inform practitioners and policy makers
• Identify provocative questions that will drive further research
2
The report draws from four countries, with varied approaches to entrepreneurship education,
within which to compare best practices – United States, China, Finland, and Qatar. The
United States has had the longest history in teaching entrepreneurship. China represents an
emerging powerhouse of education and commerce. Finland has long been known for its
innovation in education at all levels. And Qatar represents a region dominated by the oil
industry yet looking to entrepreneurship to diversify its economic activity. Each country
developed three short exemplar cases, one for each segment of education: K-12/Secondary,
College/University, and Vocational/Training programs.
Generally, entrepreneurship education consists of a nested set of activities (curriculum, co-
curricular activities, and research efforts), and decisions regarding such activities include
everything from learning objectives, topics, selection of materials, pedagogy, learner type and
delivery mechanisms. Research regarding the effectiveness of entrepreneurship education has
grown over time and expanded beyond measuring new business formation to assessing the
increase in positive perceptions of entrepreneurship and intentionality towards being
entrepreneurial. Emerging findings suggest that there is indeed a positive relationship between
entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial behaviors, yet the research is inconclusive and
more work is needed.
The analysis of the twelve cases reveals an array of best practices and related implications for
practice, policy, and research. Critical themes include: multiplicity of objectives, variety of
curricular content, role of faculty, diversity of learners, importance of place, methods of
leveraging resources, and pedagogic innovations. The report discusses these themes through
specific case examples and concludes with a series of recommendations for policy makers,
practitioners and academic researchers.
1) Develop Teachers: Establish program standards, training programs and assessment
tools that encourage teachers to acquire and employ skills and behaviors that enable
them to function as facilitators and guides to learning – rather than as traditional
classroom instructors.
2) Expand Ranks of Learners: Make entrepreneurship education compulsory for all
learners in primary, secondary and perhaps even tertiary levels, because of its
effectiveness at instilling “twenty-first century“ skills, in addition to venture creation skills.
3) Facilitate Sharing of Content and Pedagogy: Create a clearinghouse of leading-edge
curricula and pedagogic methodologies. Much good work has been done in this field
over the past decade, and many institutions are willing to share their curricula and
teaching methodologies.
3
4) Overhaul Pedagogy and Place: Revamp instructional standards and classroom
paradigms to promote team-based, action-oriented learning in spaces designed to
enhance collaboration and creativity that includes real world interactions with
entrepreneurship practitioners and with target markets for new products and services.
5) Expand Access to Resources: Increase funding for entrepreneurship education and
develop and promote innovative mechanisms to leverage partnerships with
corporations, NGOs, global institutions, foundations, as well as with individuals.
Recommended research trajectories to advance entrepreneurship education.
1) We need to define and assess an array of learning outcomes to better understand the
impact of entrepreneurship education. This requires creating and experimenting with
various metrics beyond starting a new venture and also includes a consideration of
different types of entrepreneurial learners, and assessing impacts across multiple
institutions and countries.
2) Though we recommend compulsory entrepreneurship education at the
primary/secondary level, we strongly urge researchers to not only look across schools
where this is taking place but to research stakeholders within the ecosystem. Primary
and secondary teachers, as well as parents and administrators, need to have a better
understanding of what entrepreneurship is and can be in their education systems.
3) Great examples and best practices abound—as evidenced in this report. The larger
issue to address now is scalability of programming. Entrepreneurship education
requires a hands-on, active, and experiential approach. These approaches are hard to
scale when large numbers of students are involved. How might we scale innovative
educational programs? When and how might technology be helpful? What is the
effect of technology clusters on entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurship
ecosystems?
doc_317548400.pdf