EEE Program Helps Teach Others How to Teach Entrepreneurship

October 9, 2002 - Syracuse University and Lifelong Learning for Entrepreneurship Education Professionals (LLEEP) sponsored this year’s Experiential Classroom clinic. The four-day program was held in the Syracuse University’s School of Management from September 19, 2002 – September 22. 2002. The primary objectives of this four-day clinic were to:

• Help those who are new to the teaching of entrepreneurship, including both faculty and practitioners, to learn best classroom practices;
• Give delegates an opportunity to actually teach in front of live students, with helpful critiques from entrepreneurship faculty;
• Capture the experiences of those who came to the teaching of entrepreneurship from diverse backgrounds, and share lessons learned in making the transition;
• Introduce a number of highly creative and effective experiential approaches, ranging from cases, business plans, and the use of entrepreneurs in the classroom to having students do entrepreneurial audits, the concept of marketing inventions;
• Apply a simple but powerful framework for organizing the content within an entrepreneurship course;
• Demonstrate effective teaching approaches by observing master teachers;
  Share ideas on specialty topics in entrepreneurship education, such as how to kick a class off, creative mentoring programs, what's new in entrepreneurship internships, and much more;
• Expose delegates to a rich resource base and help them join a network of faculty who share ideas, insights, and experiences

A total 36 faculty delegates from around the world attended this clinic to learn how to teach entrepreneurship from 15 of the top educators in the field of entrepreneurship. A diverse mix of schools sent delegates to the program, ranging from MIT and the University of Chicago to Louisiana Tech and Morgan State University. Using the information to which they were exposed during the first two days of the program, the delegates participated in a simulated classroom teaching experience on the third day. 150 SU students volunteered to take part in the classroom sessions. Each delegate’s presentation was videotaped and critiqued by the entrepreneurship experts and the students. On the final day of the conference the delegates received the feedback from the classroom sessions and discussed their teaching experiences. The feedback from all of those involved was superlative, leading to a commitment from the Kauffman Foundation to provide continued support to the program.