A Design Thinking approach to introduce entrepreneurship education in European school curricula

Abstract

Design Thinking is visualized as the central strategy to promote entrepreneurial skills in European schools. Europe needs future generations to be more entrepreneurial in their attitudes to achieve a strong position in the international economy. Entrepreneurial thinking needs to be fostered from an early age. With this aim, a review of current entrepreneurial teaching practices is undertaken and the key skills related to entrepreneurship are identified for school aged students. This paper argues that the basic principles of Design Thinking have the potential to promote entrepreneurial competencies in European school curricula.

How can Design Thinking promote entrepreneurship in young people?

“…It is essential for educators to target beyond context learning, and develop pedagogically effective learning environments in order to enhance the quality of education and expose their students to a better understanding of the content. Design Thinking offers an interesting approach to address these new challenges in the classrooms of the future (Val, et al 2017).…”

“…In the education sector, Design Thinking offers a flexible learning framework with students being responsible for their own learning and fostering entrepreneurial skills such as creativity, problemsolving, self-confidence and collaboration (Val, et al, 2017). Thus, using a Design Thinking approach, students identify a variety of possible solutions to solve the problem, and finally, select a justifying solution to be presented to the identified community of interest (Briggs, 2013).…”

“…In this context, Design Thinking has proved to be well positioned to address this issue as it is understood as a complex thinking process of conceiving new realities (Val, et al, 2017). Entrepreneurial skills, such as, creativity, problem-solving, self-confidence and collaboration are deeply rooted in the Design Thinking discipline.…”

Entrepreneurial Design Thinking Course at Secondary School in Nepal: Contextual Prospects and Challenges

“…Atherton (2004) defined entrepreneurial mindset as "taking the initiative and responsibility to reshape existing boundaries and norms and to create new boundaries and norms to manage and deal with conditions of ambiguity, complexity, and uncertainty" (p.126). Entrepreneurship can benefit from applying design thinking given it can foster skills like creativity, problem-solving risk-taking among students, and the ability to work in multi-disciplinary teams (Val et al, 2017). The entrepreneurial design thinking approach is considered a framework for promoting entrepreneurship education.…”

In pursuit of accomplished teacher development through praxis in a South African distance learning programme

“…Experts can assist in linking learning to real-life experiences and by providing feedback and subsequently, both learners and teachers will gain valuable insights from the experts' mistakes and experiences (Cremers et al 2014;Somby & Johansen 2017;Wilson et al 2009). When learners collaborate with their peers, they are exposed to alternative viewpoints to their own and will benefit from the shared knowledge, resources, skills and ideas (Bhattacharjee 2015;Val et al 2017). Teachers fulfil a similar role in entrepreneurship education and in fostering SDL skills, particularly that of facilitator and motivator, which differs from traditional teacher-led pedagogies (Frederiksen 2017;Golightly 2016;Lindberg et al 2017;Täks et al 2014;Toutain & Fayolle 2017;Van der Vleuten et al 2017;Verzat et al 2017).…”