PRACTICE-BASED AND COGNITIVE LEARNING IN BRAZILIAN JUNIOR ENTERPRISES

Undergraduate students in Applied Social Sciences, particularly in Administration, have flocked to junior enterprises, a strategy that allows them to combine theory learned in college with the skills from practical application. In this context, learning can occur through modalities more compliant with the individual-cognitive approach, such as training, reading texts and accessing databases, or through arrangements resulting from the practice-based approach, such as communities of practice, mentoring, on-the-job training, and casual interactions. The objective of this study was to identify which approach made the greater contribution to the learning of junior entrepreneurs. A quantitative methodology, applying questionnaires to 118 students from 14 Brazilian states, followed by exploratory factor analysis and multivariate regression was used. The main results indicated that the rules derived from the social practice approach enables greater learning, with mentoring, either from professors or more experienced colleagues, standing out as the most effective method in this context.