Educational Philosophy and Theory Underpinning the Entrepreneurship Educator’s Toolkit

What is it about?

The paper explores the central tenets of behaviourism, cognitivism, constructivism, and humanism and discusses how they can be used to support and underpin effective entrepreneurship education. The paper espouses the benefits of bringing together different philosophies and theories to underpin entrepreneurship educational practice, to meet the teaching and learning goals and objectives set. Each of the educational philosophies and theories have strengths in developing different types of knowledge and skills and the paper presents recommendations as to when each is most appropriate in the classroom to support learning. This helps to advance the literature by meeting calls for the conceptualisation of how educational philosophies and theories can be integrated into entrepreneurship education to support learners.

Featured Image

Why is it important?

An educational philosophical orientation underlies, directs, and drives educator practices, and should align with what the teaching seeks to impart and achieve, and the roles the learners and educator play in the learning process. Whilst educators might not always be explicitly aware of their philosophical orientation, it will direct and drive their pedagogic practice and have implications for what they deliver, and how they deliver it. Having a solid understanding of the philosophy and theory underpinning the teaching approach can help educators maximise the effectiveness of their teaching. However, previous literature suggests that this is not always the case and entrepreneurship educators can be left to develop their own educational practice with limited pedagogic support and training.