A structured method for innovating in entrepreneurship pedagogies

The purpose of this paper is to describe a dynamic and continuous process for evaluating entrepreneurship pedagogies to implement continuous improvement of entrepreneurship education in order to achieve increased student engagement in face-to-face classes. Pedagogy is argued to be a significant contributor to entrepreneurship education programmes, consisting of dynamic activities and initiatives within the scope of defined entrepreneurship education ecosystems.

A “minute paper” was used as a quick and convenient method to obtain qualitative data on student perceptions of different pedagogies. The research adopted an action-research strategy where data were analysed using concept mapping to identify key themes that the educator can use to further develop or modify the pedagogy during course delivery.

The research identified student perceptions of the nature of engagement with pedagogies, and of possible improvements that were used by the educator to increase student engagement during course delivery. Different pedagogies were found to have varying outcomes on students’ engagement with entrepreneurship learning, and as such, contextual and spatial factors have to be taken into account when implementing new and/or adjusted pedagogies.

Repeated application of the research method to different pedagogies was carried out in several deliveries of an undergraduate entrepreneurship foundation course in one university. As such, further research requires testing in various institutional and delivery contexts as well as comparisons of learning and other outcomes including entrepreneurial intentions between classes where particular pedagogies may or may not be used.

The approach described is relatively straightforward to implement, with marginal resource and time. It provides rich data that gives insights into student perceptions of engagement with an individual pedagogy that the educator can use to modify to modify in order to increase student engagement.

The paper describes a practical method for educators to evaluate and develop optimal pedagogies for a particular class or group of students. This method can be applied to small as well as large class sizes, and data analysis can be carried out in real time to make improvements during course delivery. Although this method is described in the context of entrepreneurship education, it can be applied to other fields of instruction.