Engineering students’ conceptions of entrepreneurial learning as part of their education

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine what kinds of conceptions of entrepreneurial learning engineering students expressed in an entrepreneurship course integrated in their study programme. The data were collected during an entrepreneurship course in Estonia that was organised for fourth-year engineering students, using video-recorded group interviews (N = 48) and individual in-depth interviews (N = 16). As a result of the phenomenographic analysis, four qualitatively distinctive conceptions of entrepreneurial learning were discerned. Entrepreneurial learning was seen to involve (1) applying entrepreneurial ideas to engineering, (2) understanding entrepreneurial issues in a new way, (3) action-oriented personal development, and (4) self-realising through collective effort. These qualitatively distinct categories differed from each other in four dimensions of variation: nature of learning, response to pedagogy, relation to teamwork, and learning outcomes.

Keywords:

• conceptions of learning
• entrepreneurial learning
• phenomenography
• integrative pedagogy
• teamwork

Acknowledgement

This article was supported as an ESF project by the Estonian Doctoral School of Educational Sciences.

About the authors

Marge Täks, MBA, is a Ph.D. candidate in Institute of Educational Research, University of Tartu. Currently she is working as an entrepreneurship and marketing lecturer at the TTK University of Applied Sciences, Estonia, and is also active in teacher training. She has an extensive experience of working as a marketing manager and started to pursue an academic career, focusing in entrepreneurial learning and teaching, only recently.

Päivi Tynjälä, Ph.D., is a Professor in research on teaching and learning in higher education at the Finnish Institute for Educational Research of the University of Jyväskylä. She has served as an Editor-in-Chief of the Educational Research Review (2010–2013). She is also an Editorial Board member of Vocations and Learning – Studies in Vocational and Professional Education. Prof. Tynjälä has published widely both nationally and internationally especially on constructivist learning environments, learning at the interface of education and work, workplace learning and teachers’ professional development.

Hasso Kukemelk, Ph.D., Docent, has held different managerial positions on upper secondary and university level during years. Main research fields are related to quality management issues in education. He is the author of more than 90 scientific publications, and a reviewer of several research journals in education.