Developing Next Generation of Innovators: Teaching Entrepreneurial Mindset Elements across Disciplines

Abstract

The purpose of our project was to explore the explicit or implicit engagement of faculty members across the curriculum in teaching the entrepreneurial mindset. We begin by defining entrepreneurship on a spectrum, recognizing the contextual nature and psychological development associated with entrepreneurial thinking. We developed a self-report survey containing a combination of quantitative and qualitative items to determine faculty member knowledge of entrepreneurship and their engagement in teaching elements of the entrepreneurial mindset. We surveyed the faculty at a primarily teaching university in the western United States. Sixty-four faculty members (~20%) with representation from across the disciplines completed our survey. We found constrained knowledge of entrepreneurship, indications of teaching elements of the entrepreneurial mindset, and approaches to assignments that were limited in scope for fostering entrepreneurial thinking. The implications of our research are a need for professional development to enhance faculty members’ knowledge of entrepreneurial thinking and support for instructional and content choices that could enhance student development of an entrepreneurial mindset.

Learning Outcomes for Improving Science Entrepreneurship in Higher Education

“…Laurikainen et al (2018) indicate that when colleges or teachers foster students' entrepreneurial mindset, it has a positive effect on improving students' learning cognition. In addition, Nadelson et al (2018) indicate that if students have positive and higher level entrepreneurial mindsets, then learning any necessary knowledge is good not only for changing their incorrect cognition process but also to transcend related knowledge learning, such as business knowledge, to enhance the effect of more meaningful learning activities under the science entrepreneurship learning process. This means that if the entrepreneurship mindset certainly mediates the relationship among learning through experience, learning for stress resistance, and learning cognition, then it will enhance the effect of learning through experience and learning for stress resistance and absolutely change students' learning cognition and even create a more positive learning effect.…”

“…According to Ventura and Soyuer (2017), an entrepreneurial mindset means being cognitively ready to always look at the world from an entrepreneurial perspective. Nadelson et al (2018) further explain that the entrepreneurial mindset is an entrepreneurial awareness and way of thinking, and its formation can be divided into three levels. The lower level refers to individuals who lack curiosity and do not engage in creative problem solving when encountering difficulties during the entrepreneurship learning process; the moderate level refers to individuals who may be somewhat curious and may engage in an immoderate level of creative problem solving when encountering difficulties during the entrepreneurship learning process; and the high level refers to individuals who frequently take a positive attitude to overcoming difficulties during the entrepreneurship learning process.…”

Leading Outside the Box: Principal Engagement in Entrepreneurial Mindset in Their Leadership

“…Thus, we constructed our model (see Figure 1) by combining elements from research in which a reductionist approach was applied to focus on a specific aspect of entrepreneurial thinking. In addition, as we developed our framework, we took into consideration our prior work in which we attempted to create a comprehensive definition for entrepreneurial thinking (Nadelson et al, 2018). Although an entrepreneurial mindset is commonly associated with business ventures (e.g., Shepherd, Patzelt, & Haynie, 2010), the mindset could also be associated with other conditions or roles (e.g., Pollard & Wilson, 2014).…”

“…Due to the novel focus of our research, we needed to develop a survey instrument to gather the data needed to answer our research questions. Using an existing framework for a comprehensive entrepreneurial mindset (Nadelson et al, 2018), we considered the application of the mindset elements in the context of the work of principals. We then generated a bank of items aligned with various entrepreneurial mindset elements.…”

Coaching and Feedback in a Faculty Professional Development Program that Integrates the Entrepreneurial Mindset and Pedagogical Best Practices into Capstone Design Courses

“…The EM is often discussed in terms of the Three Cs (curiosity, connections, and creating value) and aims, in part, to encourage students towards inquisitiveness, increased empathy and understanding of customer needs, and improved skills of innovative and entrepreneurially-minded thought in the engineering disciplines. Despite the growing acceptance of EM in engineering, a common definition and set of standardized learning objectives surrounding EM remains somewhat fragmented, making uniformity of goals and outcomes more challenging and confusion with the more traditional ideas of entrepreneurship more frequent [11]. In spite of the challenges to create a consistent definition and shared set of student outcomes, a large number of universities have recognized the value of EM in their programs and moved forward with implementation into their broader curriculum.…”