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Session 3454

Creating an Entrepreneurial Culture: Breaking the Disciplinary Boundaries

R. Wilburn Clouse, Terry Goodin Vanderbilt University

Abstract

This session will describe a multi-disciplinary approach to teaching entrepreneurship to a diverse group of students, i. e. Engineering and Human and Organizational Development students. A course has been designed to provide them with an overall understanding of entrepreneurship and to prepare them for developing a mindset for thinking creatively. Traditional disciplinary boundaries are broken, as students are freed to innovate and to think creatively about future ventures. The course is targeted at students who would like to create their own business and they are given the opportunity to develop a business plan from one of their own ideas. Students from entirely different programs, like Human and Organizational Development and Engineering, are encouraged to work collaboratively on joint projects. Opportunities to share their ideas with other entrepreneurs are made possible. The course is meant to teach students how to dream about new ideas and how to take new business ventures to the marketplace. In part, entrepreneurship is defined as a "state of mind -- artful, insightful and innovative mentality rather than a business management or administration concept." It is a way of perceiving and exploiting opportunity wherever it is found. Students are given the opportunity to explore markets for their own ideas and to conceptualize a business enterprise for such markets.

A wide variety of teaching strategies will be discussed in this session, including lecturettes, video clips, guided discussions, peer group learning, telephone/video conferencing, outside entrepreneurial speakers, online searches and comprehensive web- based interactions. Online presentation of materials will be discussed, and heavy emphasis will be placed upon the use of technology in the learning environment. Learning concepts developed by Clouse and Goodin related to "just in time" teaching and "whole-part-whole" techniques will be presented.

I. Introduction

When a young child, six or seven years of age, enters either kindergarten or first grade, they do so in a multi-disciplinary society. Students come from all walks of life, from many different cultural, economic and religious backgrounds. They all have their eyes wide open and with their own personal agendas. They are excited, creative, innovative and perhaps mischievous. The teacher has the enormous job of corralling all of these interests, backgrounds and energies into some type of productive learning environment. To make this miracle happen, the teacher must be multi-disciplinary in approach and

Proceedings of the 2001 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2001, American Society for Engineering Education

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Clouse, W., & Goodin, T. (2001, June), Creating An Entrepreneurial Culture: Breaking The Disciplinary Boundaries Paper presented at 2001 Annual Conference, Albuquerque, New Mexico. 10.18260/1-2--9056