Design Thinking as a Methodology for Teaching Entrepreneurial Mindset in Primary Education

This article provides insights into a way to develop creativity, innovation and an entrepreneurial mindset in young people as a universally applicable skill. The research questions were: How did teachers use Design Thinking as a methodology for teaching the entrepreneurial mindset to adolescent students? and What was the context in which the teaching took place, and what factors influenced the completion and outcomes of the projects? A total of 146 seventh and eighth-grade students age 12-14 and 20 teachers, 2 per class, from 10 Slovene schools took part in the study. Teachers used the Design Thinking method to facilitate hands-on student projects. During the course of the project, the participating teachers attended two meetings to present their progress. In addition, one of the study facilitators visited each school several times to discuss the project with the teachers, observe the class and take notes. Both teachers submitted a combined final report of their experience and observations. Reports collected have been coded using NVivo software. Three factors are recognised, the characteristics of the project, the environment in which it was carried out, and the characteristic of the learning and teaching. The study demonstrates that adolescents respond very favourably to an entrepreneurship assignment and that the entrepreneurship exercise builds skills in multiple developmental areas, rendering such a project very useful within existing curricula.