Evaluation of an Innovative Approach to Teaching Entrepreneurship

Abstract

Reports on the evaluation of an innovative approach to teaching entrepreneurship. The authors approached the design of an entrepreneurship course on the premise that the instruction should be appeal to, and reflect, the unique personality characteristics of the entrepreneur student, in order to produce a more effective course. Based on personality tests of 401 Baylor University students, a personality profile of the entrepreneurship student was developed. The students tend to be more autonomous, self-reliant, self-determined, rebellious, flexible, unpredictable, and unmanageable; they welcome change and new experiences. To appeal to and encourage these traits, the senior-level entrepreneurship course was designed to be unstructured, pose problems, require novel solutions under conditions of ambiguity and risk, stress independent study, and include a frustration factor. The authors devised an evaluation tool, administered near the end of the semester, to assess the students' experience and whether course objectives were met. Found that most of the students: perceived the course as new and different and probably appreciated this fact; perceived the course's uncertain outcomes and enjoyed this ambiguity; felt the class taught them to deal with real-world ambiguity; believed the course was unstructured and preferred this format; had opportunity to exercise individual capability and liked this approach; enjoyed the opportunity the to exercise social adroitness and persuasion; enjoyed learning by doing; had their self-confidence enhanced; and perceived the course as relevant and enhancing their understanding of business. (TNM)

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