The Prediction Power of Pre-Service Classroom Teachers’ Individual Innovativeness Characteristics on Entrepreneurship Skills

Abstract

Changes in science and technology and related developments,which have led to the formation of information societies, make significant contributions to every stage of the education process. Entrepreneurship is a 21stcentury skill expected from individuals in the information society; it is essential in increasing societies’ development level. In this sense, raising individuals possessing “entrepreneurship” skills, which are included in both life skills and 21st-century skills, is one of the common goals of all countries. The innovativeness level of the individuals, who are at the center of innovation and system changes, and their ability to accept it are expressed as individual innovativeness. To give the characteristics covered by the entrepreneurship skill included in the primary school curriculum to the students in our schools, it is necessary first to equip the pre-service teachers and teachers with this skill and ensure that they gain knowledge and experience on this issue. This study examines the effect of primary school pre-service classroom teachers’ innovativeness characteristics on their entrepreneurial skills. The study was designed using the quantitative research method. 420 pre-service teachers from a university’s classroom teaching program in Central Anatolia participated in the research. Missing or empty forms were excluded from the study, and the data of 358 volunteer pre-service classroom teachers were used. The “individual innovativeness scale” adapted to Turkish by Kılıçer and Odabaşı (2010) and the “entrepreneurship” scale developed for pre-service teachers by Deveci and Çepni (2015) were used to collect the data. Simple linear regression was used to reveal the causality between variables. Resistance to change, opinion leadership, openness to experience, and risk-taking were analyzed separately as innovativeness characteristics, concluding that the prediction power of resistance to change is minimal, while other characteristics predicted entrepreneurship significantly. Overall, it was concluded that individual innovativeness characteristics could explain entrepreneurship.