Entrepreneurship Learning in Higher Education: Practice-based and Action Learning Approaches

In higher education institutions, entrepreneurship learning grounded in practice-based and action-learning approaches may help to develop entrepreneurial competencies of students enrolled in entrepreneurship programmes. Several theoretical perspectives, such as social learning theory, positioning theory and action learning theory, are used to evaluate the degree of entrepreneurial competencies acquisition. In entrepreneurship education programmes, using practice-based and action-learning methods could be a significant factor in developing student competencies, including the ability to start a business, and in improving student attitudes towards entrepreneurship. This thesis aims to answer the following questions: (1) Which skills and competencies must be targeted in entrepreneurship education? (2) How could action learning and practice-based learning be combined to elaborate a more efficient learning model? and (3) What are the profiles and roles of role-sets (teams) in charge of the entrepreneurship education programme delivery? For this purpose, the researcher conducted an action research case study with 49 students enrolled in an entrepreneurship course. Subjects of the study were divided, respectively, into three groups over a period of three academic years, using a research methodology that combined several qualitative techniques. Participatory observation, semi-directive questionnaires, and analysis of pedagogic manual documentation were utilised to examine differences in student entrepreneurial intentions and level of mastery of entrepreneurship competencies at and after graduation. The thesis has six chapters. The first is dedicated to the research context and objectives. The second chapter is about literature review and how the concept of entrepreneurship is articulated among various fields of research. The third emphasises methodology, while the fourth presents findings. The discussion and conclusion are in Chapter Five, and Chapter 6 concludes the thesis with the author’s personal reflections. The study provides evidence that entrepreneurship education based on action-learning and practice-based learning methods may positively influence the entrepreneurial intentions of students and could lead to higher levels of student mastery of entrepreneurial competencies. However, the evidence presented is an action research case study, and the actual results could be reinforced by additional studies to avoid the impact of interpretation bias. Further large-scale research is needed to verify or refute the effectiveness of the proposed model. The thesis’s conclusion provides a model of entrepreneurship education that focuses on entrepreneurial competencies acquisition as a complement of business and management courses used in higher education for teaching entrepreneurship.