University of Bielsko-Biala (UBB)
Workshop 1 – Set-Up and Context
University of Bielsko-Biala first organized a short preliminary workshop whose purpose was to diagnose areas to be more thoroughly discussed during workshop 2. The workshop was organized according to the Workshop Type II. It was organized at UBB and employees of UEK were invited. The purpose of the workshops was to provide a platform for discussion concerning the understanding and role of entrepreneurship in ITE. Two workshops took place and their results are described below.
During this first workshop we checked if participants from ITE area were aware of the existence of EntreComp and of the broad definition of entrepreneurship.
Main Results – Workshop 1
The different understanding of entrepreneurship.
All participants from ITE area thought of the narrow definition of the entrepreneurship that related to business issues (such as setting up your own business, taxation issues, etc.)
Already existing entrepreneurial elements in ITE
Some competencies were present in teaching methodology courses and interpersonal communication courses. We were discussing how this presence was manifested, how it could be made more present. Participants stated that
students were “overloaded” (with too many lectures) and it would be difficult to fit more content into the courses. Next problem signalled was the lack of knowledge of ITE instructors with relation to EE area.
Workshop 2 – Set-Up and Context
The workshop was organised at University of Bielsko Biala , 7 academic teachers articipated (6 from University of Bielsko Biala and 1 from University of Economics in Katowice; the participants of workshop 2 were not the same as workshop 1 participants). All the participants from University of Bielsko-Biala teach pre-service teachers. They teach subjects directly related to teaching methodology or other subjects to teachers’ groups. The participants are dedicated educators who are motivated to make their teaching better every year and to prepare their students to become competent teachers after graduation. The workshop followed the structure of Worksho Type II (see above):
• Welcoming participants and warm-up exercises
• Introducing EntreComp
• Elaborating EE in ITE
• Introducing EE into ITE
Main Results – Workshop 2
Under this chapter the main results and opinions are introduced concerning the workshop. As a vivid discussion many of the followings were mentioned in different parts of the workshop but are now collected under the main topics for a better understanding.
Understanding of entrepreneurship
• Think what comes to your mind when you hear/see the word „Entrepreneurship” – write down the first association and compare with the answer of the person sitting to your left. Discuss.
o Most common answers: business-related knowledge, qualities of a smart person, ability to organise things, PIETE project
• What does it mean to be entrepreneurial nowadays? Think about three signs – discuss with a person sitting to your right.
o Most common answers: to live well-balanced life, not to waste your chance when it emerges, ability to earn money, ability to work with your resources (money, time, etc.), being able to manage your business.
• How entrepreneurial are you? (Group discussion)
o Participants came to a conclusion that Polish people are quite entrepreneurial and it might be their post-communist heritage – in the past, during communist times, people had to be very resourceful in order to organise things for themselves and they stayed like that although they probably wouldn’t call it entrepreneurship, but rather resourcefulness.
• Is there a common definition/understanding of entrepreneurship in the group?
o The participants agreed that entrepreneurship is something more than businessrelated knowledge although they are aware that many people including our ITE students associate it mainly with business. We tried to translate it into Polish to give its full, broad meaning and not only literal translation of the word „entrepreneurship”. We came up with a term „resourcefulness”. In the Polish language it contains the broadly understood entrepreneurship-related skills.
Introducing EntreComp
• 4 people just heard about the term (because of the PIETE project).
• The EE Teaching Toolkit was introduced briefly
• The EntreComp Wheel was introduced regarding all the 15 competences
Elaborating EE in ITE
Group work methodology was used (similar to the Workshop Type I): There were 5 sheets of paper with a different sentence beginning on each one. Participants should choose one (blindly) and write as many endings as possible then present their ideas to other pairs. The most common answers are introduced below:
• EE should be implemented into ITE because…
o it should be integrated into all programmes to make people more entrepreneurial.
o a teacher needs to be entrepreneurial nowadays (organise resources, have good communication skills, be a good negotiator, manage time, etc.).
o it is one of the priorities of European Union and teachers should be globally oriented and have broad perspectives.
• It would be hard to implement EE into ITE because…
o course programmes are overloaded (to become a teacher of a given subject students need to study the subject itself and methodology and pedagogy of teaching it).
o students are not very motivated nowadays (as compared to 5 years ago).
o teachers are overloaded.
o teachers lack knowledge with relation to EE or EntreComp.
o teachers are not motivated to introduce additional element to their overloaded programmes.
• EE is already part of ITE curriculum, because…
o some of its components are implemented into the curriculum, for instance ethical and sustainable thinking (ethics in the work of a teacher – elaborated on at methodology classes by some teachers), creativity (methodology classes), motivation, mobilising resources.
• A good way of involving EE into ITE programmes would be…
o making ITE teachers aware of the broad sense of entrepreneurship, its importance, EntreComp components.
o motivating teachers to introduce EE into their ITE programmes (for instance offering some incentives).
o providing ITE teachers with some ready-made resources to be used during their teaching.
Introducing EE into ITE
Participants agreed that they will be more sensitive towards EE and components of EntreComp and will try to consciously spot which ones are already present in their courses. They will then try to implement more components if the time allows it. All agreed that the greatest challenge will probably be to make other ITE teachers (outside organisations which are PIETE partners) motivated enough to implement EE education elements into their teaching. The next step would be to think about some incentives for them. And, of course, they should be informed about the importance of EE education.
Implementation and further steps:
Entrepreneurship Education Capacity Building Compilation was put together as an essential asset of the PIETE project with the aim of helping fellow educators and HEI managers to foster the spread of entrepreneurship competences in initial teacher education. Based on 6 workshops and in-depth discussions with numerous pedagogic educators our main conclusion was that the intention exists, but the ignition is missing. Almost all of the educators who are dedicated towards raising the quality of ITE also acknowledged the importance of entrepreneurship competences and were willing to take further steps towards it. However, the main barriers were the lack of clear understanding of entrepreneurship competences and moreover the lack of practical tools how to foster it.
These conclusions underlined the basis of the PIETE project in general and the aim of this document. We are dedicated to providing this tool to all of those initial teacher educators who only need a spark to start real actions. This Compilation was put together with the clear intention of being practical, real-life based and easily implementable. However, even the best motivations can only have results if they meet with the intentions of their target group. Therefore, the fate of this document lies in your hands – if you are willing to take the next step.
As a Chinese proverb states:
“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”