Students’ Responses to Teachers’ Epistemological Frames in Entrepreneurship education in Higher Education

Abstract

<p>The focus of this study is on the epistemological frames that teachers employ to facilitate student learning in entrepreneurship education (EE). Drawing on three epistemological frames that teachers exhibit in teaching—delivering knowledge, guiding knowledge construction, and making space for collaborative and iterative knowledge construction —this study investigates what and how students learn about entrepreneurial behavior in response to teachers’ epistemological frames. Our qualitative study focuses on a bachelor’s-level EE course investigating the learning reflections of 12 students from six different teams, all of whom provided a report on a team exercise <em>The Entrepreneurial Movement</em>. <img alt="Anchor" title="Anchor" align=""><a>For the students, the</a> course was experienced as a relational activity that, through their responses and reflection, produced a learning journey with various knowledge-related and affective learning outcomes on entrepreneurial behavior. Our study introduces “<em>through”</em> competition as an applicable mode of learning in EE and shows how the suggested epistemological frames stimulate different student responses and complement each other in students’ holistic learning about entrepreneurial behavior. We identify potential future research directions and provide implications for educators and students in EE.<br></p>