Developing the Entrepreneurial Spirit
Learning in Action! is a process connecting learning with the framework of the learner. It is a holistic approach to the learning process involving the whole-part-whole teaching strategies that connects the learning to live cases written across several different disciplines to develop an authentic learning experience. Our process is designed to be a creative force to help students see new and different ventures in life and to help the United States regain world recognition and redevelop a value system of business ethics and respect for life and the world environment. We want students to experience the power to think and to use this thinking power to build bridges across disciplines, across learning environments and across cultures. We want our students to develop the future, not follow the past. We have placed this process in the total framework of what we call Learning in Action!, to cause the application of knowledge, which is the ultimate reason for learning - thus creating Knowledge in Action!
We have developed a learning process that leads to the application of knowledge through problem based cases and learning activities written in the following areas:
///Entrepreneurs in Action!
///Creativity In Action!
///Humor In Action!
///Ideas in Actions!
Through a problem-based case experience, the student learns multiple concepts and different disciplines simultaneously. Learning in Action! is developed through problem-based learning cases that are multi-disciplinary in nature. The over riding theme is to produce students who can be creative thinkers in the 21st century. Our world is filled with uncertainty in our social, economic and political systems. Certainty and stability are no longer a given. In recent years, political systems have failed, terrorist activities have increased to be world wide, world energy systems are changing, world markets are changing, product and process development systems are being modified. The world is unstable and uncertain. But yet most of our formal educational systems teach students how to work and live in a stable and structured organizational world.
The question arises as to how we can deal with an environment of rapid change and uncertainty. We are, of course, uncertain about how to handle this changing and uncertain world, but we believe that individuals who can think creatively are more likely to succeed than those who are linear thinkers. Thus, we have developed a process to encourage creative thinking by developing the whole-part-whole process, using resources designed for just-in-time learning, using a recursive curriculum design and working from the end product. Thus Learning in Action! process has been developed to encourage creative and entrepreneur thinking. We want to influence students to make jobs rather than take jobs.
The Learning in Action! process involves the development of learning cases with entrepreneurship as the central theme of each case. We have developed a series of cases that teach students to expand their thinking to be outside of linear systems and “right answer approaches”. We want students to be able to deal with uncertainty and chaos and to see opportunities that may come out of an ever-changing environment. Thus, we have tried to include new idea development, creativity, humor and entrepreneurship as a way to viewing and thinking about a way of life. We want to maximize life by developing individuals who are self-sufficient, self-determined and who have a passion for new venture creation.
