Chapter 5: Enhancing entrepreneurial skills through practice-oriented learning tasks integrated in cooperative learning

Entrepreneurship is one of the essential tools for reducing unemployment in South Africa. The problem of unemployment may be addressed if learners are equipped with entrepreneurial skills that can empower them to become job creators rather than job seekers. Entrepreneurial skills can be developed in Business Studies, an elective subject in the South African school curriculum. The problem is that Business Studies teachers do not always provide adequate opportunities for learners to practise entrepreneurial skills. The chapter reports on undergraduate Business Studies student teachers’ exposure to practice-oriented learning tasks and cooperative learning as a teaching–learning strategy and how it influenced them to integrate these strategies in their own lesson planning. A cooperative learning experience in which students actively support one another, working in small group contexts to develop an understanding of the theory in practice, contributes to increased motivation and responsibility for self-directed learning (SDL). During the development of students’ SDL skills, they would be prepared for the globally competitive world of work. A basic qualitative study was conducted with first-year Business Studies student teachers at a higher education institution (HEI) in South Africa who consented to participate in the research. An intervention was developed and implemented during scheduled classes, incorporating practice-oriented learning tasks and cooperative learning. Student teachers were required to submit an assignment before and after the intervention, in which they designed their own lesson plans for a South African Further Education and Training (FET) Grade 10 Business Studies class lesson. The data from participants’ assignments were used as documents for data analysis to identify their use of practice-oriented learning tasks and cooperative learning strategies in lesson plans before and after the intervention. The goal was to determine whether the intervention influenced their selection of teaching–learning strategies and learning tasks. Data were analysed through content analysis using a priori coding as a method. The findings showed that student teachers’ exposure to the integration of practice-oriented learning tasks and cooperative learning as a teaching–learning strategy increased their tendency to propose these strategies in their own lesson plans. We strongly recommend that the current South African Business Studies subject student teachers be exposed to practice-oriented learning tasks and active teaching–learning strategies such as cooperative learning during their training to enhance SDL. The exposure to practice-oriented learning tasks will sensitise them to incorporate entrepreneurial skills in their own classes, which will eventually also sensitise learners to entrepreneurial skills.