The significance of teaching
entrepreneurship skills is nowadays highlighted by different entities.
Innovative ideas, creativity, independent work approach, finding relevant
information, self-management, cooperation, team work as well as presentation
and communication skills are present in almost every field. This brings
challenges to the education system and classroom practices. In several
countries the national curriculum recognizes the importance of the entrepreneurship
skills and in some cases it has been mainstreamed to the whole curriculum. The
number of separate entrepreneurship courses is also increasing.
As entrepreneurship
skills can be integrated to all school subjects, there are many possibilities
to practice those skills. The multidisciplinary approach to entrepreneurship
gives flexibility, but it is also possible to integrate exercises, which
strengthen entrepreneurship skills, to the traditional subject lessons. The
participative methods and learning by doing are necessary when motivating
students to entrepreneurship and lowering the barriers to try something
different. In addition, it is important to create atmosphere where mistake is
seen as a good opportunity to learn and not to be feared. The creative and
successful ideas can be also strange and funny, but there is also risks and
surprises which can´t be predicted before seeing the idea in the practice. Good
example is Movember: How would you initially predict that growing mustache can
lead to successful, international movement which has raised funds to improve
the wellbeing of the men with prostate cancer?
To sum up,
entrepreneurship skills can be taught in various practices, but continuous
effort to encourage students to think independently in every lesson leads to
positive attitude which makes the difference. It is advised to perform group
work with incidental groups in order to ensure work with unfamiliar and new
approaches. Here few examples of participative methods to activate entrepreneurship
skills:
1.
Branding our school: The objective is to create a brand
to the school and suitable small product (cup, t-shirt, key chain etc.), which
can be given to visitors or sold to stakeholders. The starting point is to
describe the personality of the school (physically, social atmosphere, people
etc.) Separate groups create visual image, slogan, product etc. based on their
own ideas. After presenting all brands,
the best one is elected democratically and the product is realized. The
exercise can be extended to create marketing plan for the school.
2.
Brainstorming: Use activity to create incidental
groups. Orientate students to brainstorming: it is important to create as many
ideas as possible without thinking too much. Present the question or theme. For
example if you could choose anything in the world what kind of enterprise you
would create? In the group everybody participates and tells their ideas. All
ideas are written to sticky notes. Then the group chooses the best idea. All
groups make presentation of their idea (3 min/group). Discussion and evaluation:
Which of the ideas are worth to realize?
3.
The recycling workshop: Collect used material, for example
paper, cardboard, plastic, bottles, tins etc. Give the pupils the theme (festivity
decoration, sculpture, miniature etc.) which should be created mainly from used
materials. Variation: Give every group an imaginative word and task to create
that machine or thing with the recycled material. Afterwards groups make
presentation which includes explanation how the creation works and why others
should buy it. The creation with most votes can get a prize.
4.
Marketing: The starting point is to analyze few
existing adverts. What kind of
strategies has been used? What kind of image, vision or message the advert
wants to transfer? What kind of emotions it raises? How the advert tries to
impact you? What kind of people are in the advert? What is the focus in the
advert? After discussion give all groups some product and task to create advert
about it, for example short video or poster.
5.
Solution based team work: Choose one current problem from the
local, national or global level and challenge groups to create solutions to the
problem. For example how to increase the healthy lifestyle, responsible
consumption, decrease the use of drugs, juvenile delinquency, school absence,
littering, depression. Groups have to create campaign, project or presentation.
Remember!: It is necessary to touch emotional and social side of the human life
to achieve successful impact. The rational reasons have less relevance.
6.
Redesign everyday object: How would you improve the usability
of cutlery, coat rack, mobile phone? How would you improve your school
corridor, playground or classroom?
7.
Game: Ask groups to create a game, which can be also
digital if students have programming skills. Other group has to test the
prototypes and give feedback in order to develop the game further. Make so many
testing rounds as necessary.
8.
Fund raising event: The students have to create fund
raising event or activity for the
student union or for study visit. It can be for example musical, artistic or
sport competition, theatre show, party with small entrance fee. The simple idea
is also prepare something easy (i.e. biscuits) and sell it from door to door. Funny
and social media campaigns are also fruitful.
9.
Desert island: First ask everybody individually to
list 10 things they would take on a desert island to survive there. Divide students
into pairs. They should discuss of their lists and negotiate common 8 things to
take on a desert island. Unite students to small groups, which have to reduce
the list to 6 things. Then unite bigger groups, which choose 4 things. Then
groups present their lists and justify their choices to all class.
10.
Company visits, living library of local
entrepreneurs or normal presentation: Prepare with the students questions for the
entrepreneurs. It can be also combined to find shared project with the company
or the organization.
11.
Short activities in the middle of
any lesson for energizing the group:
- Paper tower: Which group builds the highest tower using
only 10 pages of paper?
- Drawing,
explaining, acting: Write different words on papers and separately 3 action
papers with words ‘drawing’, ‘explaining’ and ‘acting’. The classroom is
divided into groups. All students are at least once in the front. They take one paper and one of the 3 action papers
without seeing other side. According to the papers, the task is to draw, act or
explain the word to all. The first group guessing right gets one point. Points
are marked to see the competition. The activity works well in foreign language
lessons too.
- Blind
team work: Preparation: 15-20m ropes and scarves for all. The students are
divided into groups and they have their eyes blindfolded with scarves. The
groups have to make different patterns, for example square, isosceles triangle,
and star.
- Legs and arms: The groups (same number of students in each group) have to perform together
tasks of increasing difficulty. For example first there can be in total 5 legs
and 1 arm on the ground -> 4 legs and 2 arms -> 3 legs -> 2 legs and 1
arm -> 1 leg.
