Teaching Practices that Optimize Entrepreneurial Intention
Abstract
With an ever-increasing reliance on small and medium sized firms for the creation of new jobs, policy makers have encouraged the development of entrepreneurship courses and programs in post-secondary institutions around the world (Oosterbeek, Van Praag, & Ijsselstein, 2010) to increase the number of entrepreneurs who create these firms. This exploratory study seeks to see if one or more of three psychological theories of learning best contribute to the development of entrepreneurial intent in students taking courses overtly related to entrepreneurship. These include the behaviourist, cognitivist and constructivist psychological theories of learning. The goal of the dissertation was to determine those teaching methods that have the greatest affect on a student’s entrepreneurial intent. In conjunction with available quantitative data from the International Study of Entrepreneurship Education Outcomes (ISEEO), qualitative grounded theory methodology (Glaser & Strauss, 2009; Strauss & Corbin, 1990) was used to develop a theory using grounded theory analysis guidelines (Charmaz, 2006). Theses guidelines involved coding, concept grouping, and characteristic development. A theory was developed building upon Allport’s (1935) tri-component theory of attitudes to explain how teaching methods affect behaviour, which affects attitude toward entrepreneurship. The theory is that constructivist-teaching methods influence post-secondary students to “do” the things that entrepreneurs do. This initiates the behavioural component of attitude, which in conjunction with affect and cognition, influences attitude change. This attitude change in entrepreneurship students contributes to increased positive entrepreneurial intention as compared to students that are taught using primarily objectivist or cognitivist instructional techniques.
Description
Keywords
Education--Adult and Continuing, Education--Business, Educational Psychology, Education--Higher
Citation
Gough, V. (2016). Teaching Practices that Optimize Entrepreneurial Intention (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/27987