By Abosede Ajala
|
The human mind has a lot to do…..that is where the idea is first fostered, the mind visualizes the project/business, execute it before it is physically seen. To what extent does entrepreneurship education impact on students’ critical thinking and business idea generation?
The critical thinking and business idea generation is a pivot to entrepreneurship education, how? In order to achieve the set goals of catching them young, it is good to align with the Kolb’s learning cycle. The cycle involves two interrelated ends which are grasping and transforming experience. Both stages refer to the various approaches adopted by individuals geared at the acquisition of information from the real world through either apprehension or comprehension.
Apprehension is achieved as a consequence of the tangibility and qualities of an immediate experience, while comprehension is reached as a consequence of the conceptual interpretation and symbolic representation of experience. The initial stage of Kolb’s model which is concrete experience, can be achieved through the use of simulations or entrepreneurial related games, demonstrations, presentation with real world experiences and social problems.
These teaching methods will ensure that students are fully involved in new and concrete experiences. In the same light, entrepreneurship educators can use more creative pedagogical methods such as sharing content, conceptual mapping and project–based learning particularly in the active conceptualisation stage of the learning cycle. The goal here will be the usage of appropriate pedagogies that motivate students/trainees to know how to think and not what to think as regards entrepreneurial related goals.
In our tertiary learning centers only little has been done about the designing of entrepreneurship programmes to be consistent with the development of learners as reflective entrepreneurs. The transformation of experience through intention is tagged reflective observation, which suggests that individuals internally reflect upon the various components of their experiences and ideas. In the same vein, the transformation of experience through extension is tagged active experimentation, which implies that individuals learn through an active testing or experimenting of ideas and business opportunities in real life situations.
With the Kolb’s Learning Cycle critically viewed, it illustrates that two dimensions of grasping and transforming information culminates in four ways of learning and creating novel knowledge. The reflective observation stage of the Kolb’s learning cycle can be achieved through the adoption of pedagogical methods such as reflection practice, class discussions, journal keeping and hands on practical etc.
These approaches will strongly motivate critical reflection and keen observation of learning experiences and enhance the creation of a course of action for their ongoing entrepreneurial development. Also, this can be realized through business plan writing, business startups, idea generation and opportunity identification exercises. These activities function as linkage between the theory and practice of entrepreneurship, when learners experiment with the process of business creation through actual creation and offering of new products and services into the market.
Virtually every skill has its own uniqueness. Electrical installations, repairs and fittings are highly lucrative, for the builders are still constructing and the houses need wiring, fixing or fittings etc., and with the economic trend, old or bad electrical appliances are no longer being disposed as electrician/technicians repaired them for reuse to save money and cut cost.
‘Learn a trade today and be empowered for life’.
