Developing twenty-first century skills for creativity and innovation: the case of the entrepreneurial educator in raising learner awareness of intellectual property

Abstract

This chapter introduces entrepreneurial learning and its goal of creating value for others, whatever the discipline or subject area. It sets the scene for IP education by placing it within a learning journey that aims to take learners from dependency on the educator towards autonomy of thought and action, and from simple concepts to complex problem solving. Drawing upon international policy drivers and frameworks that have been designed to support entrepreneurial education, we discuss pedagogical considerations and locate opportunities to develop an increasingly enhanced awareness of the role of IP. Experiential Learning takes us beyond knowledge retention towards knowledge harvesting in situations of ambiguity and risk, thus mimicking the life world of the entrepreneur or intrapreneur. A case study employs curiosity-based learning, where an educator’s ability to ask appropriate questions of learners takes precedence over transmission teaching, as its aim is to arouse interest and to open the door to develop future opportunities, motivated by the learner’s own evolving interest in the topic. Developed in partnership with alumni over the past 35 years, it has become a lesson in itself, through learning from the experiences of past students. By busting the myth that entrepreneurial education is all about starting a business, the chapter also provides insights into what entrepreneurial education is, how it can be defined, how it supports sustainability goals and why learning teaching and assessment strategies which have a future orientation are important for us all to consider. As education shifts from knowledge retention towards evidenced competency development, being able to be entrepreneurial means being able to take IP considerations into account.