Construction and Development of Entrepreneurial Curriculum System Based
on Entrepreneurial Process
Kun-yi Li 1, Xin-ping Shi 1, Zhong-li Ji 1
1
Department of Management，Changzhou Institute of Light Industry Technology, Changzhou, China
(leekey@czili.edu.cn, chutianyu2003@hotmail.com，gzl@czili.edu.cn)
Abstract - Entrepreneurial curriculum is the basis for
colleges and universities to realize the objective of
entrepreneurial education. Students’ entrepreneurial
knowledge, ability, and quality structure is determined by
scientific and reasonable entrepreneurial curriculum system
in certain degree. However, seen from current situation of
entrepreneurial education in domestic universities and
colleges, there is not mature and effective entrepreneurial
curriculum yet. Creative thinking of entrepreneurial
curriculum system development for universities and colleges
is put forwards by combining basic rule of teaching activity
from the perceptive of entrepreneurial process. Meanwhile,
entrepreneurial curriculum system based on entrepreneurial
process for university students is developed according to
three-dimensional construction model of entrepreneurial
curriculum system.
Keywords - Entrepreneurial process, curriculum,
colleges and universities, entrepreneurial education
Ⅰ. INTRODUCTION
Entrepreneurial curriculum is the core link of
entrepreneurial education, and the bridge to realize the
objective of entrepreneurial education and cultivation [1].
curriculum in current universities and colleges, most
universities and colleges regard entrepreneurial
curriculum as a part of vocational counsel, with no mature
and effective entrepreneurial curriculum system, which
cannot satisfy the demand of university students in
entrepreneurial practice [2] . Therefore, the construction of
scientific and effective curriculum system for
entrepreneurial education in colleges and universities
becomes urgent and necessary, while the problem is how
to develop entrepreneurial curriculum system suitable for
domestic entrepreneurial education[3]. There is no
authoritative guidance in this aspect[4]. Some creative
explorations are made in the paper for the construction
and development of entrepreneurial curriculum system in
universities and colleges.
Ⅱ. DEVELOPMENT THINKING OF
ENTREPRENEURIAL CURRICULUM SYSTEM
BASED ON ENTREPRENEURIAL PROCESS
Curriculum development theory based on work process is
the advanced theory put forwards by Chinese education
experts based on successful experience of vocational
Requirement of objective and task
suitable for curriculum type
Teaching
activity
Objective and Task
(Knowledge, ability, quality)
Curriculum Type
(Theory, Practice)
Different objectives and
tasks in different stages
of Entrepreneurial
Entrepreneurial
activity
Different curriculum types
in different stages of
entrepreneurial process
Entrepreneurial process
Fig. 1. The development thinking of entrepreneurial curriculum system
based on entrepreneurial process
Seen from the setting of entrepreneurial education
The paper is sponsored by project funded by philosophy social
sciencies in universities and colleges under the leadership of Jiangsu
Ministry of Education in 2011 (Program Number: 2011SJB 8800005),
2011 youth special topic of 125 planning of Jiangsu Education
Science(Program Number: C-a/2011/01/07).
education curriculum development in various countries
and abundant achievement of domestic curriculum reform
[5]
. Curriculum system developed based on the theory
changes from subject system to work system; curriculum
development changes from mainline of knowledge logics
to mainline of vocational activity. By learning from
curriculum development experience based on work
process, the development thinking framework of
entrepreneurial
curriculum
system
based
on
entrepreneurial process is put forwards with the mainline
of entrepreneurial activity, as shown in Fig. 1.
Entrepreneurial education is a comprehensive
interdisciplinary education activity[6], which has
effectiveness relying on two aspects: the first is the
profound understanding and correct transmission of
entrepreneurial activity; the second is the effectiveness
and pertinence of the educational activity implementation.
Therefore, entrepreneurial education shall combine
commercial activity and educational activity.
According to entrepreneurial activity, as a complex
commercial behavior, it has different tasks and vocational
features in different entrepreneurial stages, leading to
different entrepreneurial objectives and tasks of
entrepreneurial curriculum. Meanwhile, for teaching
activity, in order to realize different teaching objectives
and tasks, different teaching models and methods are
applied, which is reflected in different curriculum types.
Ⅲ. REVIEW AND ANALYSIS ON THEORY OF
ENTREPRENEURIAL PROCESS
Many entrepreneurial process theoretical models are
set up by the theoretical circles to discuss the logic order
of relevant entrepreneurial activities. Representative
opinions include: from the perceptive of enterprise life
cycle, D.H.Holt（1992）suggested that “entrepreneurial
process
includes
preentrepreneurial
stage,
entrepreneurial stage, early growth stage, and postentrepreneurial stage”. According to Olive（2001）, from
the perceptive of personal career development,
entrepreneurial process is divided into 8 stages including:
determining to be entrepreneur, selecting entrepreneurial
Entrep reneurial growth
opportunity, performing initial analysis, constructing
management team, formulating entrepreneurial plan,
completing action plan, operation and growth in early
stage, and obtaining personal success and company
success [7].
Action flow of entrepreneurial process is drawn
from different angles according to the theory, which
provides direction for the entrepreneurial practices.
However, for university students, these theoretical models
lack of pertinence in certain degree. According to the case
study on university pioneering work, with combination of
higher education feature, it is suitable for entrepreneurial
education of universities and colleges to consider the
entrepreneurial process from the individual perceptive,
which is reflected in basic paradigm of entrepreneurial
educational curriculum in entrepreneurial curriculum of
American universities, the Babson College in America.
University students shall consider core problems
including: whether to do pioneering work, what ability
and quality they shall have, how to identify and judge
opportunity, how to establish a business, and how to
operate the business. Universities shall help these
university students to look for answer of the question
from the above aspects [8] . Therefore, in the development
of entrepreneurial curriculum, the entrepreneurial process
can be divided into five stages including: generation of
entrepreneurial intention, opportunity identification and
evaluation, entrepreneurial planning, entrepreneurial
launch, and enterprise growth.
In
line
with
development
Entrepreneurial
process
Entrep reneurial launch
Reflect basic rule of
entrep reneurial activity
Entrep reneurial p lanning
Op p ortunity identification
and evaluatio
Reflect the integration p rincip le of
knowledge, ability , and quality
Entrep reneurial intention
formation
Reflect features of module,
level and combination
Ⅳ. CONSTRUCTION OF THREE-DIMENSIONAL
ENTREPRENEURIAL CURRICULUM SYSTEM FOR
ENTREPRENEURIAL EDUCATION
Objectives and tasks
C
ur
r
ic
ul
um
ty
pe
s
al
tic
re g
ng
eo in
ni
ai
Th c h
r
a
t
te
e
l
e
ng
d c
Si
t e an l
ita rm na
Im erfo atio
r e
p
pe ic
O ract
p
Entrep reneurial Entrep reneurial Entrep reneurial
knowledge
knowledge
knowledge
Fig. 2. Construction model of three-dimension entrepreneurial curriculum system
thinking
of
entrepreneurial
curriculum
system
based
on
entrepreneurial process in universities and colleges, the
construction model of entrepreneurial educational
curriculum system is put forwards. The model is consisted
of three dimensions. The first dimension refers to
objective and task. Seen from the aspect of curriculum
design, the objective and task of curriculum is divided in
to entrepreneurial knowledge, entrepreneurial ability, and
entrepreneurial quality; the second dimension refers to
curriculum type. Seen from the angle of teaching mode,
the teaching method and teaching means is considered
based on how to cultivate entrepreneurial feature, how to
teach entrepreneurial knowledge, and how to improve
Entrepreneurial
Process
entrepreneurial skill, which is divided into entrepreneurial
theory teaching, entrepreneurial single training,
entrepreneurial imitated performance, and actual
operational experience; the third dimension is
entrepreneurial process, which considers the basic process
that the enterprise shall go through from the angle of
entrepreneurial activity rule, consisted of five stages
including entrepreneurial intention formation, opportunity
identification and evaluation, entrepreneurial planning,
entrepreneurial launch, and enterprise growth. Three
dimensions have considerations from different directions,
which are separated from each other and closely related to
each other, as shown in Fig.2.
Objectives and
Tasks
Entrepreneurial
Theoretical Courses
Entrepreneurial
Practical Courses
Cultivation of entrepreneurial spirit
Generation of entrepreneurial
consciousness
Entrepreneurial
intention formation
Become entrepreneur
Entrepreneurial mentality training
Teamwork spirit cultivation
Industrial background knowledge
Market survey analysis
Opportunity identification
and evaluatio
Excavation of commercial
opportunity
Analysis on commercial
opportunity
Entrepreneurial
thinking training
Teamwork
training
Generation of enterprise idea
Opportunity Evaluation
Entrepreneurial
skill training
Marketing plan
Composition of talent organization
Entrepreneurial planning
Entrepreneurial legal form
Entrepreneurial
marketing plan
Formulation of financial plan
Entrepreneurial plan report
Team construction
Entrepreneurial Law
Enterprise
operational sand
table training
Entrepreneurial
policy and law
Entrepreneurial launch
Entrepreneurial
practice
Enterprises registration process
Entrepreneurial financing
Marketing
HR management
Entrepreneurial growth
Newly-established
enterprise management
Financial management
Construction of enterprise culture
Industrial development analysis
Entrepreneurial
imitated
performance
Industry and product
knowledge
Fig. 3. Development of entrepreneurial curriculum system based on
entrepreneurial process
Ⅴ.
DEVELOPMENT OF ENTREPRENEURIAL
CURRICULUM SYSTEM BASED ON
ENTREPRENEURIAL PROCESS
A. Development of entrepreneurial curriculum based on
entrepreneurial process.
With mainline of basic entrepreneurial process, by
analyzing commercial activities in every entrepreneurial
stage, extracting necessary knowledge for entrepreneurial
process, summarizing core entrepreneurial ability, and
integrating comprehensive quality of entrepreneurs, the
curriculum suitable for entrepreneurial education in
universities and colleges is developed in line with
construction model of three-dimension: objective and
task– curriculum type – entrepreneurial process.
Seen from Fig.3, entrepreneurial educational
curriculum based on entrepreneurial process development
in universities and colleges includes 6 entrepreneurial
theoretical courses (become entrepreneur; analysis on
commercial opportunity; entrepreneurial marketing plan;
entrepreneurial policy and law; newly-established
enterprise management; industry and product knowledge)
and 6 practical courses (entrepreneurial thinking training,
teamwork training; entrepreneurial skill training;
enterprise operational sand table training; entrepreneurial
imitated performance; entrepreneurial practice).
B. Structure of entrepreneurial curriculum system in
universities and colleges
For
implementation
of
the
differentiated
entrepreneurial education, entrepreneurial curriculum
system is designed according to levels to satisfy
entrepreneurial education demand of students with
different levels, different abilities, and different
entrepreneurial demands, and realize multiple-level and
diversified teaching mode. Entrepreneurial education
curriculum is divided into theoretical course and practical
course, including 3 levels and 12 courses, resulting in to
entrepreneurial curriculum system with modules, levels,
and combination.
The entrepreneurial curriculum is divided into three
levels. The first level, “entrepreneurial basic course”, is
the popularization of entrepreneurial consciousness and
basic entrepreneurial knowledge, which can be regarded
as the required course for all students; the second level,
“entrepreneurial practice course” refers to entrepreneurial
skill training course for students with strong
entrepreneurial interest and intention, which can be
regarded as required course or elective course according
to different subject features, or be combined in subject
course; the third level, “entrepreneurial management
course” refers to entrepreneurial improvement course for
students with entrepreneurial basis or entrepreneurial
experience, which can be regarded as elective course
according to industrial feature.
Ⅵ. CONCLUSION
Curriculum system construction, which is the
weakest and the fatal in entrepreneurial education
research field, is taken as the research object in the paper.
Creative thinking of entrepreneurial curriculum system
development for universities and colleges is put forwards
by combining basic rule of teaching activity from the
perceptive of entrepreneurial process. Meanwhile,
entrepreneurial
curriculum
system
based
on
entrepreneurial process for university students is
developed according to three-dimensional construction
model of entrepreneurial curriculum system. It is hoped
that these research results will enrich current
entrepreneurial theory and provide beneficial reference to
the effective implementation of entrepreneurial education
in universities and colleges.
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