1. Finnish Teachers as Users and Creators of
Learning Environments That Promote
Entrepreneuship
Minna Riikka Järvinen, PhD, MA, MBA
May 15, 2013 Kerhokeskus, Finland
Research paper by Minna Riikka Järvinen, Merike Kesler and Elena
Ruskovaara

2. Kerhokeskus TM
& Co.Innovations forteaching

4. 7 survival skills, Wagner 2008,2012
• Critical thinking and problem solving
• Collaboration across networks and leading by influence
• Agility and adaptability
• Initiative and entrepreneurship
• Effective oral and written communication
• Accessing and analysing information
• Curiosity and imagination
• https://www.teachthought.com/learning/21st-century-learning-preparing-
students-for-complex-futures/

5. Entrepreneuship education as means for
developing metacognitive skills
https://www.teachthought.com/learning/is-entreprenurial-learning-the-
way-of-the-future/?ref=nf

6. Research question
How teachers in Finnish basic education and general and
vocational upper secondary education use and create
learning environments that facilitate the
development of key skills and foster entrepreneuship in
students.

7. Data collection with Measurement Tool
for Entrepreneurship Education™
• Self-evaluation tool for teachers in basic and upper secondary
education
• Helps to evaluate and develop one’s own entrepreneurship
education and that of the school community
• Responding questionaire of 112 questions takes approx. 15
minutes, after which immediate personal feedback and ideas for
the implementation of entrepreneurship education are given
• Feedback requires registration
• Tool available in Finnish and Swedish, see
www.lut.fi/entre

8. The Measurement Tool examines
entrepreneurship education
1. Entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship education
2. Pedagogical solutions
3. Operating culture
4. Learning environments
5. Operation in networks

9. Based on definition of future learning environments
Boundaries of formal, informal and nonformal learning environments disappear
Co-creation of knowledge - learners active role as a producer of knowledge!
From subject-based learning to topic-based understanding and creation.
Knowledge and skills aquired outside school recognized also in school teaching.
(Saywer 2006; Natritello 2007; Kangas 2010)
Concept of learning environment of the
measurement tool

10. Concept of entrepreneurship
• Derived from Gibb 2005; Remes 2001, 2004; Kyrö 2005, 2008
• Independence
• Self-evaluation skills
• Talents and skills
• Responsibility
• Goal-orientation
• New solutions
• Risk-taking
• Learning from mistakes
• Recognising one’s potentials
• Future aspirations

11. Research data & analysis
• 36 questions /112; learning environment 22 ,
entrepreneurship 14
• N=638
• Background information: teachers’ age, gender,
working experience, school level
• SPSS (IBM SPSS STATISTICS v20) with data
compression using principal component analysis PCA +
sum variables
• Statistical differences tested using ANOVA variance
analysis Post Hoc (Tukey)

12. Results. Teaching situations and
learning environments
• Teachers create and utilise entrepreneurial learning
environments occasionally. No difference according to any
background variables.
• Teachers modify their own plans, test new things & working
methods quite often, i.e are quite flexible. No difference according
to any background variables.
• The more competent teacher felt about his/hers skills and
competences in entrepreneurship education, the better the results.

13. Results. Content analysis; learning
environments (le)
Activity-based physical le: mean 2,6 times/6months; differences between
individual schools and teachers; vocational ed stands out because of
curriculum  quite good results at all levels
Inspiring physical le: mean 1,8 times/6months; creative activities and
engagning learners quite uncommon in Finnish schools depressing result
Collaborative le: mean 2,5 (scale 0-4) (weekly to monthly)
Creativity-fostering le: mean 2,44 (scale 0-4) occasionally
Teachers’ gender or work experience makes no difference to the results.
Instead their perception of their own skills and competences correlate with
better results.
Does Finnish education root more in epistemology than onthology?

14. Results. Developing Entrepreneurship
in learners
Scale 0-4 (never-daily)
3 principal components:
Encouragement – mean 3; only weekly!
Fostering creativity – mean 2.3 (little better than monthly)
Discussion on the future – mean 2 (monthly)
No differerences between school levels, not even on points when
pupils should pick up future plans.

15. Conclusions
Teachers are school-centered but flexible.
Learning environments out-of-school visited once-
twice/semester.
Involving learners in learning process and its planning is
uncommon.
Coping with uncertainty, self-direction, shared expertise or
brainstorming only occasionally.

16. Conclusions
Cornerstones of all learning, responsibility, goal-orientation,
strenghtening confidence in one’s skills, learning from mistakes ONLY
WEEKLY.
Schools&teachers school-centered, relatively supportive,
less creative, hardly ever future oriented.
Teachers’ confidence in their own skills makes a difference.
More in-profession training and new trends to teacher training
needed + Pedacogigal leadership – role of the principal vital.

17. Three dreams about future school
”The world of not knowing is the world of
learning”.

18. School pedagogy of the future
Krokfors et al. 2010

20. Thank you for your attention! Ask for the full paper:
minnariikka.jarvinen@kerhokeskus.fi