Closing the Loop: Measuring Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy to Assess Student Learning Outcomes

Abstract

Accredited degree programs primarily use graded assignments in the embedded-course method to measure individual-level assurances of learning (AoL). This method is expensive, subjective, retrospective, and difficult to implement for continuous program improvement. The purpose of our research is to explore the use of entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE) as an individual-level AoL outcome to augment the quality management of accredited entrepreneurship degree programs. Previous research on ESE, arising from intention models and theory of planned behavior, has used the construct primarily for predicting start-up intent or differentiating nonentrepreneurs from entrepreneurs. In contrast, we begin from an educational assessment and social cognitive theory perspective in constructing our ESE scale. The new ESE scale is operationalized by theoretically justifying 8 learning outcomes, testing 70 items based on scales in the extant literature, and extracting 11 factors or subdomains of ESE using principal components analysis to create a parsimonious new 44-item ESE scale. Expanding the ESE construct to 11 subdomains also expands the use of ESE into the fields of educational assessment, AoL, and program accreditation. This enables understanding the links between pedagogy, curriculum, assignments, grades, enactive mastery experiences, and peer feedback to achieve meaningful student transformation through self-efficacy beliefs.

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