Teaching methods in entrepreneurship education: the case of business students in Iran

As stated in numerous studies, entrepreneurship education is becoming more and more important everywhere in the world and research works in entrepreneurship are growing and getting legitimacy in the scientific communities, however a few scholars have focused on the subfield of entrepreneurship education. Although the key to a successful entrepreneurship education is to find the most effective way to manage the teachable skills and identify the best match between student needs and teaching techniques, there is no universal pedagogical recipe to teach entrepreneurship and the choice of techniques and modalities depends mainly on the objectives, contents and constraints imposed by the institutional context. Entrepreneurship education is a new phenomenon in Iran. These programs vary widely in terms of short term objectives, target audiences, format and pedagogical approach. The first post-graduate entrepreneurship management program has been initiated in the University of Tehran in 2005. Purpose of this paper is to investigate on different teaching methods of entrepreneurship education in this master program. This is a qualitative study and data was gathered through the semi structured interviews with six experts on teaching methods by taking the experts opinion about teaching methods of entrepreneurship education for business students. The results point out passive methods could be used to teach the basic and theoretical contents, but active methods like group discussion, role play or simulation are needed to teach in advanced learning level. They also agree to apply for the creative methods include problem solving, training in an enterprise and scientific visits.