LEARNING TO BE ENTREPRENEURIAL IN VOCATIONAL TEACHER EDUCATION

Abstract

Being entrepreneurial is a concept which has evoked interest in the context of entrepreneurship education. It is a desirable quality not only among people already in working life but also among students, teachers and learning organizations. Teachers are a group who by their own example can serve as a model for others. Through their own entrepreneurial example teachers can encourage their own students to be entrepreneurial. Therefore, it is appropriate that the entrepreneurial activities will be learned already during the teacher education. Observations of the entrepreneurial approach of two groups who began their studies at HAMK were initiated in August 2011. Instead of the normal teacher-led training the groups of students were divided according to the tenets of Problem-Based Learning into small groups. Each group was assigned the responsibility for the independent planning, implementation and assessment of studies pertaining to vocational teacher education. The task of the instructors was to monitor the activities and to intervene only when necessary. In the reactions and development of the students the phases of the risk pedagogy model proposed by Paula Kyrö could be discerned- confusion, taking action and learning to take risk. The students in the groups responded twice to questionnaires addressed to them. The first questionnaire was implemented in the beginning of studies and the second at the end of studies. The observations of the teacher educators and students were also analyzed. It can be concluded/stated as a conclusion that in the early stage the students were confused, and partly also angry. Taking action, however, yielded results and the prospective teachers realized that they had coped with the challenges. Eventually in the course of implementation there actually emerged competition in regards to which group had achieved the highest quality implementation. Thus through experiences of being teachers, the prospective teachers also learned the matters pertaining being entrepreneurial, such as responsibility and risk-taking. The purpose of this article is to describe the story of the growth of prospective vocational teachers. First we present the key concepts used in the research. Thereafter we describe the studies of the prospective teachers as a whole. Next we introduce the prospective teachers’ and instructors’ experiences of the implementation phase. Finally we both draw conclusions about the implementation and endeavor to stimulate discussion on the further development of entrepreneurial education.