LEARNING TASKS
While it is possible to just read the stories of entrepreneurial educators included in this collection as one would with any book, we believe that greater benefits can be gained if these stories become part of learning activities purposefully designed to achieve specific instructional goals. Here you can find a selection of learning tasks used in the course, Entrepreneurial Skills for Educators offered at the Warner School of Education at the University of Rochester, as well as additional tasks contributed by other users.
Feel free to modify and adapt them as you wish – just acknowledge the source and let us know about your adaptation.
How to contribute new/adapted learning tasks
In the spirit of an “open education” approach, we would like everyone to benefit from the learning tasks that users of these resources may create over time, and so we encourage you to share:
- Modifications you made of any of the learning tasks included in this section, along with information about your purpose and context
- New learning tasks you created using any of the materials included in this collection, along with a brief description of the task and its goals, a well as information about context of use when appropriate
Please refer to the Guidelines for Contributions for more information about what needs to be submitted. All submissions will be reviewed by the editors to select which ones will be included in this section.
List of suggested learning tasks
We have organized this section around key learning goals that one may want to achieve to prepare education change agents to be more successful at initiating and carrying out value-adding innovations. Each item features a specific learning task and provides a brief description of the learning task and its goals, along with links to one or more specific examples of assignments/projects assigned in courses or other contexts. For each example, authors and context are identified in the document itself, and some suggestions for possible modifications provided.
1. Fostering appreciation for the value-added of educational innovations
Inspiring examples of educational innovations are key to developing a desire to become a change agent in education. Therefore, we suggest to start with assigning a set of “innovation stories” as readings, with a focus on identifying the “added value” each story contributed – and then providing opportunities to discuss that value. The choice of stories to read, as well as the vehicles created to discuss their value, will depend on the audience and time available.
- Task 1.1: Read selected stories from our e-book and discuss their value-added (grad course)
- Task 1.2: Watch the video of “A LIfe Outside” and identify innovations and their value-added (grad course)
2. Addressing misconceptions about entrepreneurship
Applying entrepreneurial ideas and practices in education is likely to generate some resistance, due to the widespread interpretation of “entrepreneurship” as only starting new businesses, combined with educators’ common concerns about the dangers of applying business models to education. This needs to be addressed early on, by explicitly examining similarities and differences between entrepreneurs in business versus education.
- Task 2.1: Readings from the entrepreneurship literature in various fields, to inform a discussion about “How is entrepreneurship different in education vs. business?” (grad course)
3. Understanding the role played by the organization
Understanding the role played by one’s organization in supporting or hindering innovations/ entrepreneurial activity will help educators in that organization develop realistic expectations, and also proactively think about how to ensure the best chances of success for their ideas. And for individuals who are the leader of their organization, it will help identify what kind of culture and structures may promote innovation, and what can be done to establish those favorable conditions.
- Task 3.1: Readings from the literature in various fields, to inform a discussion about “How is entrepreneurship different in education vs. business?” (grad course)
4. Identifying practices for specific “areas of practice”
While compelling stories of innovation are critical to develop a desire to engage in similar innovations, becoming aware of specific practices to do so is also important to experience success as an entrepreneurial educator. Reading an analysis of what practices were employed in specific stories can be a powerful vehicle to do so.
- Task 4.1: Reflecting on the practices used by entrepreneurial educators in specific stories (grad course)
- Task 4.2: Identifying entrepreneurial practices employed in specific stories other than the case-studies
5. Identifying practices specific to stages of the entrepreneurial process.
Different stages of the entrepreneurial process of initiating and carrying out a specific innovation call for using different practices. To become aware of what may be used and when, a valuable task is to engage the learner in analyzing specific “innovation stories” with the goal of identifying the mindsets and practices that seemed to be employed at specific stages of the process. This task could be left more open and unstructured or scaffolded, by providing the list of mindsets and practices we identified in the e-book.
- Task 5.1: “scaffolded” assignment to identify mindsets and practices useful at different stages of the entrepreneurial process (grad course)
- Task 5.2: ”unstructured” assignment to identify mindsets and practices useful at different stages of the entrepreneurial process
6. Evaluating an opportunity for Innovation
While it is almost impossible to go through the entire process of innovation within the constraints of a course or professional development, it is possible and valuable to engage participants in at least the beginning stages of it – and specifically the systematic evaluation of an opportunity for innovation each of them may have been considered. This long-term project has been developed along the iterative use of the Opportunity Evaluation Tool we created based on the analysis reported in Chapter 13 about how the successful entrepreneurial educators we studied went about this stage of the process – and has now been used with success with many cohorts of students.
- Task 6.1: Opportunity Evaluation Project (grad course)
7. Interviewing an entrepreneurial educator “in your backyard”
Conducting a semi-structured interview with an education change agent you know can be very powerful to show the importance and value of the mindsets and practices identified in the e-book. It can also help students realize that they, too, could make use of those mindsets and practices. To make the most of this experience and also to make sure students would be supported in this long-term project, in our course we have carefully structured this project and set intermediate deadlines.
8. Applying what learned to one’s practice
Conducting a semi-structured interview with an education change agent you know can be very powerful to show the importance and value of the mindsets and practices identified in the e-book. It can also help students realize that they, too, could make use of those mindsets and practices. To make the most of this experience and also to make sure students would be supported in this long-term project, in our course we have carefully structured this project and set intermediate deadlines.