ideas and opportunities

Here is my simplified concept of the entrepreneurial competences that  are related to ideas and opportunities.

Boosting a sense of initiative and entrepreneurship in your students - European Schoolnet Academy Mooc

ethical and sustainable thinking

Entrepreneurial minds are not just dreamers distanced from the world that surrounds them. They are able (or should be) to assess the consequences that their ideas and actions have on other people, on society, on the environment. Enterprising teachers and students should therefore work on analyzing their ideas in ethical and sustainable terms, adapt ideas according to the situation or social needs, or take ethical and sustainable principles as a trigger for new ideas. 

Ethical behaviour

Solving real –life dilemmas in class is a good way to introduce your students to ethical thinking.  The topics could be inspired by situations that children and young people can closely relate to.

Example of a real-life dilemma: 

Lea has been offered something she really wants. Unfortunately, it's terribly unfair to a lot of other people and she knows it. Should she allow herself to benefit from an unfair situation?

Real-life dilemmas help students to see the different nuances of the meaning of acting responsibly, which is a relevant competence not only related to entrepreneurship. You can explore many other scenarios at the Daily Dilemma Archive. 

Sustainable thinking

What entrepreneurs should always have in mind is that what they do today will have an impact on theirs and everyone’s tomorrow. This entails thinking what consequences an action might have on the community, environment, economy and society as a whole.

Fair trade is a good example of a topic, which you can tackle in the classroom. By learning more about fair trade, students in both primary and secondary education can learn more about the relationships between farmers, businesses and consumers and how we can produce food in a sustainable way.

Primary school 

‘Tea in Malawi – what happens when you choose Fairtrade?’ is a learning activity for ages 7 to 12 which allows students to learn how tea is grown and how Fairtrade works. Through a series of group work students will examine the different factors that influence tea production and they will play a game where they would make decisions about how money is spent, taking in consideration workers.

Secondary school

‘Leandro and the mysterious case of the disappearing and reappearing river’ is a learning activity (ages 12+) that tackles the question of how human actions influence environment and climate through a discussion on the process of producing tea. You can use this activity or create a similar activity to bring their attention to situations where our actions have a durable effect on nature, society and economy.

You can explore other activity created by the Fairtrade Foundation here. 

An ethical doubt I can use in my classroom: 
During the course on pests and plant diseases, and the use of agrochemicals.
"You are a farmer and you have  a serious problem with a disease of  your crop. The agrochemical you must use is dangerous for the consumer, unless you harvest after 7 days. But the market offers high prices now and prices will drop next week. What will you do?

Boosting a sense of initiative and entrepreneurship in your students - European Schoolnet Academy Mooc

the value of ideas

Innovative minds are nurtured into appreciating the importance of an idea. They see potential and find ways to realize it. 
We can help our students to find the right balance between imagination and applicability of ideas by teaching them how to evaluate their ideas.

In order to evaluate an idea we need to see it through various perspectives and consider all aspects of it.  

One activity which is very useful for bringing awareness to all aspects of an idea, and the various opportunities it may bring, is mind mapping (also called mental map). 

Mind mapping is a way of capturing your thoughts by presenting them in a visual form, identifying strategies and patterns, steps in achieving a certain aim. Mind mapping allows you to consider several aspects of an idea, a project, a topic. Mind mapping could be facilitated by many different digital tools but sometimes just using a pen and putting all ideas on paper would work just fine (and that's what I prefer!)

Mind mapping helps students to put ideas in context and evaluate their relevance to the world that surrounds them. Mind maps can be presented in different ways: spider's web, fish skeleton, network scheme, etc. You can find different examples of the types of mind maps online.  If you want to explore this method further, have a look at this activity from the Virtual Guide to Entrepreneurial Learning. 

Here is the mind map that I develop, thinking about how I could add entrepreneurial competences in my classroom.

A mind map doesn't have to be fancy! It's all about the process of analyzing and developing thoughts

Boosting a sense of initiative and entrepreneurship in your students - European Schoolnet Academy Mooc

innovation starts with a vision

Entrepreneurial mind-sets are forward thinking. 
Idea generation can be done through visualisation of scenarios - being able to see clearly the realisation of the idea and its impact. 
In order to foster this competence in our students we need to give freedom to their imagination and to open their perception to new and unexplored areas of knowledge and ideas. 

What can you do to support your students in visualising future scenarios? 

• provoke curiosity about the future
• ask questions in order to develop students’ strategic thinking 
• have always clear, and simple questions to guide your students through the process of visualising ideas. (Imagine that…How does it works? What are the steps to achieve this? What if? ) 

Classroom activities could be both oral and supported by visual elements, such as sketches, notes, comic books, lists, etc. 

Sharing visions and looking through the eyes of others is a powerful way of broadening one’s mind and imagination.  That is why visualisation techniques are suitable for activities with the whole class or in groups. 

The following scenarios help you to spot what differentiates "spotting opportunities" from "having a vision"..

1. A small child in a classroom/school breaks a leg and needs to come to school on a wheelchair. The classmates and the teacher observe that there are barriers in the school that impede the child to participate in all activities as before. For example, it is difficult to reach the theatre where the class generally has their drama lesson. The teacher and the class take this as an opportunity to reflect on current architectural barriers in the school and to propose improvements. This activity is about spotting opportunities. 
2. The teachers and the class take this a step further. They consider what their neighbourhood would look like if there were no architectural barriers at all. How would the neighbourhood look like? How would a town that is built with access and mobility in mind look like?  This activity is about vision. 

Boosting a sense of initiative and entrepreneurship in your students - European Schoolnet Academy Mooc