Entrepreneurial and Engineering Education - a twofer proposal

Lílian Barros Pereira Campos1, Janaina Antonino Pinto2,Roger Junio Campos3

1,2,3
Universidade Federal de Itajubá- campus of Itabira, Brazil,

Email: liliancampos@unifei.edu.br; janainaantonino@unifei.edu.br; rogercampos@unifei.edu.br

Abstract
One of the main challenges of entrepreneurship education is to become a cross-curricular teaching practice and not an
encapsulated discipline. This article discusses the possibility that technical disciplines assume the role of developing
entrepreneurial skills in training engineers. A question guided this study: How can a technical discipline collaborate to
develop entrepreneurial skills compared to a discipline of entrepreneurship? A research was conducted with students
who participated in two disciplines offered at a Brazilian university to electrical engineering students. Both disciplines
adopted applications of project-based learning (PBL). A student survey revealed that both disciplines had similar impacts
in terms of the development of entrepreneurial skills. The following outcomes can be highlighted: a) the perception of
motivation to perform in an entrepreneurial manner in both disciplines was the same, with 58% of concordance by the
students; b) the perception of development of entrepreneurial skills was higher at the technical discipline than at the
entrepreneurial one (68% against 49%); c) the perception of effectiveness of the pedagogical approach (PBL) was quite
similar (71% at the technical discipline and 67% at the entrepreneurial one) and d) the perception of development of
business skills was higher at the entrepreneurial discipline (51% against 11%), because this is a direct content of this
discipline and at the technical discipline this content is not taught. This study shows that the entrepreneurial education
(EE) is an important part of engineering formation. PBL approach proved its value to engage students and to turn
learning into an interesting and experiential journey for the students. It was possible to point out important strategies
technical disciplines can use in order to improve the development of entrepreneurial skills, such as: team management,
hands-on prototype development, problem-solving environment, leadership training and project based learning itself.
Keywords: Entrepreneurial Education; Engineering Education; Project-Based Learning

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Entrepreneurial and Engineering Education - a twofer proposal
Lílian Barros Pereira Campos1, Janaina Antonino Pinto2,Roger Junio Campos3

1,2,3
Universidade Federal de Itajubá- campus of Itabira, Brazil,

Email: liliancampos@unifei.edu.br; janainaantonino@unifei.edu.br; rogercampos@unifei.edu.br

Abstract
One of the main challenges of entrepreneurship education is to become a cross-curricular teaching practice and not an
encapsulated discipline. This article discusses the possibility that technical disciplines assume the role of developing
entrepreneurial skills in training engineers. A question guided this study: How can a technical discipline collaborate to
develop entrepreneurial skills compared to a discipline of entrepreneurship? A research was conducted with students
who participated in two disciplines offered at a Brazilian university to electrical engineering students. Both disciplines
adopted applications of project-based learning (PBL). A student survey revealed that both disciplines had similar impacts
in terms of the development of entrepreneurial skills. The following outcomes can be highlighted: a) the perception of
motivation to perform in an entrepreneurial manner in both disciplines was the same, with 58% of concordance by the
students; b) the perception of development of entrepreneurial skills was higher at the technical discipline than at the
entrepreneurial one (68% against 49%); c) the perception of effectiveness of the pedagogical approach (PBL) was quite
similar (71% at the technical discipline and 67% at the entrepreneurial one) and d) the perception of development of
business skills was higher at the entrepreneurial discipline (51% against 11%), because this is a direct content of this
discipline and at the technical discipline this content is not taught. This study shows that the entrepreneurial education
(EE) is an important part of engineering formation. PBL approach proved its value to engage students and to turn
learning into an interesting and experiential journey for the students. It was possible to point out important strategies
technical disciplines can use in order to improve the development of entrepreneurial skills, such as: team management,
hands-on prototype development, problem-solving environment, leadership training and project based learning itself.
Keywords: Entrepreneurial Education; Engineering Education; Project-Based Learning

1 Introduction
One of the biggest challenges of entrepreneurship education is to involve the entire university.
Entrepreneurship education has long left the exclusive purview of the business school. Its relevance to
engineering and the sciences has never been clearer. Many engineering programs have embraced
entrepreneurship, establishing their own faculties and curriculum (Engel, Schindehutte, Neck, Smilor, & Rossi,
2016 Maresch, Harms, Kailer, & Wimmer-Wurm, 2016). In Brazil, 56% of Engineering Schools offer
entrepreneurship courses to their students (Endeavor Brasil, 2017).

The increasing importance of entrepreneurship education to engineers is due to the new social imperatives
that made it essential that universities assume a responsible role as trainers of good professionals capable of
entering, and thriving in, the workplace (Täks, Tynjälä, Toding, Kukemelk, & Venessar, 2014). This challenge
becomes bigger when Schulte (2004) says that the university of our times must create job creators and not
job seekers. In engineering fields, university departments should seek to provide students with a broad range
of skills and knowledge beyond the merely technical (Ohland, Frillman, Miller, & Carolina, 2004), including
good communication skills, expertise in multidisciplinary teamwork, entrepreneurial spirit, global and
multilateral approaches to problem-solving, and sensitivity to the cultural, social and economic environment
(Torres, Velez Arocho, & Pabon, 1997).

In face of this context, it can be seen that both entrepreneurship education and the adoption of active
learning methodologies have had considerable relevance in the context of engineering education. This is due
to the fact that both educational applications aim to provide engineers with entrepreneurial and
management skills (Papayannakis, Kastelli, Damigos, & Mavrotas, 2008) that will enhance their profiles in
accordance to the new requirements of a knowledge-based economy.

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In order to address this matter, this article aims to report the EE experience of two is professors from the
Itabira campus of Itajubá Federal University, a technological campus with 9 engineering courses. Both
professors used project based learning strategies. One discipline is exclusively about entrepreneurship. The
other one is a technological discipline. To test the hypothesis that entrepreneurship can be taught in
technological disciplines, this paper shows the learning results of these experiences in an engineering
context. The model for entrepreneurial education that guided the study was p roposed by Pretorius, Nieman,
& Vuuren (2005) that asserts that the entrepreneurial education depends on the facilitator's ability and skills
to enhance motivation, entrepreneurial skills, and business skills through the creative use of different
approaches.

This article contains six parts. This first part is the introduction. The second part is the theoretical framework
for understanding the entrepreneurial education in engineering context. The third part presents the research
procedures, consisting of questionnaires answered by the students during 2016's first semester. The fourth
part discusses the data. The fifth part contains final considerations about this study and, finally, the sixth part
lists the bibliographic references used in this work.

2 Entrepreneurial Education in Engineering Context

While business schools host the majority of entrepreneurship programs, engineering schools are realizing
that entrepreneurship is a vital area of study and practice for engineers and applied scientists (Endeavor
Brasil, 2016; Mcgourty, 2009). Some engineering schools in US offer a full major in entrepreneurship and
others offered minors or certificates. Stanford University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are
always cited as avant-garde institutions that offer courses, conferences, internships, research activities and
even venture programs designed to promote entrepreneurship (Mcgourty, 2009; Endeavor Brasil, 2017).

The growing importance of entrepreneurship in the engineering context can be noticed by the increasing
number of publication in this area. Using the Elsevier Scopus search service (https://www.scopus.com/), it was
possible to identify, on 15 September 2017, 2,029 documents published in indexed journals, which used the
terms ‘engineering’ and ‘entrepreneurship’. The terms were used to search simultaneously in title, abstract
and keywords. Using the same criteria and adding the terms ‘engineering’ and ‘entrepreneurship education’
1202 documents published were found. Although this method could be improved, Figure 1 shows a general
perspective on the exponential growing in the interest in entrepreneurship in engineering context.

400
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
0

engineering and entrepreneurship education engineering and entrepreneurship

Figure 1. A perspective about the growth of published documents on entrepreneurship on engineering context.

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Standish-Kuon T. & Rice, M.P. (2002) found three models of introducing entrepreneurship to engineering and
science students. They analysed the programs of 06 American universities and classified them according to
the location of the programs (Business school, Engineering School or Multi-school). This shows the
possibilities on engineering school have to offer entrepreneurship education to their students. In the same
direction, Turner & Gianiodis (2017) identified the growing trend in entrepreneurship education is the
development of blended entrepreneurial programs (BEPs)—programs that merge entrepreneurial curriculum
with a technical degree—located outside traditional business school settings.

Never than less, many experiences of EE found in the literature are disciplines of entrepreneurship offered by
Business Schools or by entrepreneurship professors inside engineering courses. These disciplines varies in the
content and stage of business development. Sullivan, Carlson, & Carlson (2001) reported their experience of
a invention and innovation course for engineering students. As they said this course cultivated an
understanding of the entrepreneurship and invention world through a hands-on introduction to product
design and development.

Creed, Suuberg, & Crawford (2002) reported two courses from an engineering department that attempts to
provide senior undergraduates an introduction to a technology-based entrepreneurial environment. Its
objective is prepare young engineers to new technologies environment which is provided by co-working
agenda with companies which present a seed idea that will be developed by students. Attending this course,
students deal with real industrial problems and interact with personnel of the company until the solution
presentation. According to Creed, Suuberg, & Crawford (2002) these students have a deep experience in
developing and validating new technology.

Mendelson (2001) reported an interesting experience that help students come from the ideation of a new
business to market commercialization. It comprises three courses (New Product Design & Development,
Entrepreneurship and Project/Thesis). All courses operates in multidisciplinary teams of engineering and
business students. At the end of the courses, the outputs are evaluated by a product review board that
comprises venture capitalists, patent attorneys, presidents of small engineering enterprises, and our faculty.
The teams are encouraged to form incubators, which could lead to small businesses.

Gimenez, Bambini, & Bonacelli (2016) discussed the case of State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), one of
the most awarded university for its initiatives of innovation and entrepreneurship. At Unicamp disciplines of
entrepreneurship are offered to undergraduate and graduate students, both by the incubator Inova, and by
academic units of Unicamp. The aim of this disciplines is to raise awareness of the community
entrepreneurship and innovation, and to enable students to use entrepreneurial tools and themes such as
Intellectual Property, innovation and entrepreneurship. What makes this model interesting is the incubator
becomes an EE space opened to the students.

Noronha, Fowler, & Santanna (2016) shows the case of University of Itajubá. There, eight courses are offered
to guide the students from ideation to market commercialization of the business ideas. The students can get
a minor degree if students attend at least 5 courses. To get this minor degree, the student must take part at a
extension entrepreneurship project and deliver a Disruptive Thesis, which is an start up proposal.

Reinforcing this paper hypothesis that a technological discipline can be used to teach entrepreneurship,
Jamison IV (2017) used the Introduction to Biomechanics course focused on developing skills related to
opportunity identification and impact evaluation. Changes in the perception of entrepreneurial skills level
before and after completing the ideation project were statistically significant (p < 0.05). The results indicate
that the experience was successful in integrating entrepreneurially minded learning in a senior-level elective
and developing an entrepreneurial minded skill set (Jamison IV, 2017).

To extend the results of EE, the literature shows some important challenges. Hashimoto (2013), in his
research on entrepreneurship centers, calls attention to the need for a new paradigm in Brazilian EE in which

4
professors would use more extensively the experiential and dynamic approaches, proposing activities that
would challenge students with the use of simulations, laboratories, practices, and tests. According to him,
training for professors is important for them to assume a new position and acquire a new pedagogical
repertoire to improve EE in Brazil (Lima, Lopes, Nassif, & Silva, 2015).

Besides the importance of using a more practical approach to entrepreneurship education, Engel et al, (2016)
points other challenges to EE that must be tackle to take EE to a higher level, which are: 1) to increase the
offer of higher education programs, courses, and activities in entrepreneurship; 2) to train more professors
and teachers in entrepreneurship education; 3) to increase proximity to and contact with entrepreneurs and
their reality; and 4) Increase the diversity in course and activity offerings at colleges and universities beyond
business planning.

2.1 Project Based Learning

Projects are finite endeavours with defined goals that rise from a problem, a necessity, an opportunity or
interest of a person, a group, or an organization (Barbosa & Moura, 2013). When this concept is used as a
pedagogical resource, project based learning (PBL) rises as an AL (active learning) strategy that allows a
student to learn by applying these ideas and concepts (Krajcik & Blumenfeld, 2006).
The PBL is a form of situational learning based on the constructivist findings where the student gains a
profound comprehension when he or she gets involved in their knowledge development (Krajcik &
Blumenfeld, 2006). This approach has been gaining ground especially in applied science universities due to
the student´s necessity to develop several learning competences for the professional environment. It is a
technique that provides multifaceted learning experiences as opposed to the traditional teaching method
(Lettenmeier, Autio, & Jänis, 2014). Several studies have proved that PBL is an active learning approach that
can be organized in several ways. It is important to mention that PBL have a effective impact in the
development of transversal skill and consequently in the professional formation of engineering students
(Lima, Mesquita, Rocha, & Rabelo 2017; van Hattum-Janssen & Mesquita, 2011; Lima, Mesquita, Fernandes,
Marinho-Araújo, Rabelo 2015; Lima, Mesquita, & Flores 2014).
According to Barbosa & Moura (2013), there are three categories for this approach: (i) Constructive project: it
aims to build something new by introducing innovations or proposing a new solution to a problem or
situation. It has a function, form, or process in the inventiveness dimension; (ii) Investigative project: research
development on a matter or situation by applying a scientific method; and (iii) Didactic (or explanatory)
project aimed to explain, to illustrate, and to reveal the scientific principles of functioning of objects,
mechanisms, systems, and so on.
To Krajcik & Blumenfeld (2006) , PBL is an overall approach to the design of learning environments. Learning
environments that are project-based have the following five key features: 1. They start with a driving
question, a problem to be solved; 2. Students explore the driving question by participating in authentic,
situated inquiry, which are processes of problem solving that are central to expert performance in the
discipline. As students explore the driving question, they learn and apply important ideas in the discipline; 3.
Students, teachers, and community members engage in collaborative activities to find solutions to the
driving question. This mirrors the complex social situation of expert problem solving; 4. While engaged in the
inquiry process, students are exposed to learning technologies that help them participate in activities
normally beyond their ability and 5. Students create a set of tangible products that address the driving
question. These are shared artefacts, publicly accessible external representations of the class’s learning.
Considering all these PBL characteristics, it is possible to conclude that this strategy is broadly used to obtain
learning results, including entrepreneurial education (Campos, Pinto, & Campos, 2017 ). For this to happen, it
is believed that the teacher must constantly check whether the students have the appropriate theoretical
basis for developing a project. Project activities are widely identified as a valuable component of teaching.
The potential for enhancement of competences, peer learning and assessment are considerable together
with greater efficiency on staff resources. In this way, it is important that the teacher acts as a tutor by

5
following the intermediary results, and by verifying the progress of the work group. Thus, PBL is presented as
an alternative to knowledge development that can be shared internally and externally by the university.

3 Research Procedures
This is a descriptive research (Gonçalves & Meirelles, 2002) that is the most appropriate modality to describe
the experiences of EE using the project based learning (PBL) strategy of active learning. In order to know in
depth the results of the performed activities, the quantitative strategy was used. According to Gonçalves &
Meirelles (2002), this strategy is more adequate for the behaviour quantification and analysis of a given
population.
To achieve the objectives of the study, a multiple case study was developed that, as Yin (2005) states, can be
useful for testing theories and elucidating situations. The cases studied were the pedagogical experiences of
three professors from the Itabira campus of Federal University of Itajubá, who used PBL strategies with the
objective to develop entrepreneurial skills in their students.
Data collection was done through the application of a questionnaire that was answered by the students at
the end of the courses. The questionnaire was composed of 26 closed questions that students were asked to
answer on a 5-point scale that indicated how often the situations in the questions occurred during the
disciplines, being 1 for never, 2 for rarely, 3 for some times, 4 for most of the times, and 5 always. These
questions were elaborated to evaluate the results of entrepreneurship teaching experiences following the
theoretical model proposed by Pretorius et al. (2005). Thus, four sets of questions were raised which were: a)
perception of effectiveness of facilitator's ability and skills; b) perception of motivation to perform in an
entrepreneurial manner; c) perception of development of entrepreneurial skills and business skills during the
taught topic and d) perception of effectiveness of the pedagogical approach (project based learning). For
data analysis, descriptive statistics were used to determine the percentage of students that fit into each
situation described in the questions.

3.1 Description of the activities developed in the disciplines

3.1.1 Discipline 1 - Scientific, Technological, and Entrepreneurship Introduction (STEI)
This is an authentic entrepreneurial discipline that is part of the curriculum for the electrical engineering and
production engineering undergraduate courses. It consists of approximately 60 semester hours (30h
theoretical and 30h practical). The main goal of the discipline was to develop business ideas in the students'
knowledge area. The project was investigative (Barbosa & Moura, 2013) because the students had to develop
and present an executive summary of the business idea formulated by their group.
The discipline was designed to inspire students to develop a business ideia from the ideation phase up to the
presentation of a pitch to a review board, composed by the instructor and local entrepreneurs. The content
of the discipline was divided in 6 units: Ideation, Business Model, Marketing, Sales, Operation, Financial
Planning and Funding. At each class the teacher started with a brief explanation about a specific topic and
assigned tasks to the group according each stage of development of the ideia. So in every class, the
instructor worked with the groups as a mentor.
The project corresponded to 70% of the final grade, divided in 3 presentation: 1) The chosen problem and
the Solution, 3) Business Model and 4) Final Pitch. At this project, prototypes were not compulsory. The other
assessment activities were in class discussion (20%) and to deliver a text about start up cases (10%).

3.1.2 Discipline 2 - Industrial Instrumentation (II)

This technical discipline is part of the curriculum for the electrical engineering and for control and
automation engineering courses. These course consist of approximately 90 semester hours (64h theoretical
and 32h practical), with one third of the classes in the instrumentation laboratory. In this discipline, a project
was proposed with the main goal to solve a real problem by assembling sensors and conditioning their
signals.

6
Thereafter, the students were supposed to develop an electrical signal conditioning system that is in the
range of 0 to 5 Volts, as it is used in the industry, being compulsory the use of some type of sensor. The
prototype of the project had to be delivered on a prototyped electronic board, and signal conditioning had
to be performed using operational amplifiers.
The students were divided into groups of 5 people. Each group was managed by a leader, as if they were in a
company, with operational rules, roles, and functions. At the end of the course, each group had to present a
prototype as if they were presenting a commercial product to a review board composed by professors and
industry members.
The project corresponded to 25% of the final grade. The other assessment activities were tests (45%),
exercises (20%), group seminars they had to present about a content topic (10%). The project was assessed
considering the following aspects: (i) cooperation with peers (assessed by four peer assessment moments
during the semester, (ii) functional prototype, (iii) final paper, and (iv ) project presentation. The distribution
of the 25 credits assigned to the project is shown in Table 1.
Table 1. Distribution of the 25 credits assigned to the project

Aspects assessed in the project Percentage of project credits

Peer assessment 10%
Functional prototype 40%
Final paper 20%
Presentation 20%
TOTAL 100% ≡ 25 credits

3.2 Presentation of Collected Data

As the authors pointed out on the previous session, the students were asked to answer the questions on a 5-
point scale that indicated how often the situations in the questions occurred during the disciplines, being 1
for never, 2 for rarely, 3 for some times, 4 for most of the times, and 5 always. Considering the most frequent
situations (responses 4 and 5), the authors got the results presented on Tables 2, 3, 4, and 5 which are
considered the assessment level of the constructs indicated on the Pretorius et al. (2005) model.
Table 2 presents the construct motivation to act in an entrepreneurial way. In general, in both disciplines the
majority of the students reported they felt more motivated to change their attitudes to solve problems, to
contribute to economic development and to turn their ideas into reality. The lower degree of motivation was
obtained to manage, and to open a company. It is believed that this data reflects the risk aversion that some
students have. This risk aversion has been reported in some studies about the disposition to
entrepreneurship (Inacio, 2014). Never then less, it can be said that both discipline obtained the same
effectiveness in motivation students to perform in an entrepreneurial manner.

Table 2. Perception of motivation to perform in an entrepreneurial manner

Situation STEI II
I felt motivated to adopt new attitudes to solve problems. 69% 71%
I felt motivated to contribute to economic development through new technologies. 67% 64%
I felt motivated to turn my ideas into reality. 54% 71%
I felt motivated to be a manager in a company. 52% 50%
I felt motivated to start a business. 50% 36%
Mean of each discipline 58% 58%

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Table 3 presents the construct development of entrepreneurial skills. During the development of the
disciplines, the majority of students report that they improved their persistence, creativity, critical thinking,
planning, and project management. It was noticed in a smaller proportion that the abilities to identify an
opportunity, leadership, confrontation of risky situations, and innovation were less developed. Even though,
the students reported difficulties to create innovations based on their own knowledge. It is important to
noticed that the technological discipline II was more effective to develop entrepreneurial skills than the
entrepreneurial discipline STEI. According to the data every entrepreneurial skill was more encouraged in the technical
discipline.

Table 3: Perception of development of entrepreneurial skills during the taught topic

Situation STEI II
I developed my persistence to achieve goals. 57% 86%
I developed my ability to think creatively and critically. 61% 71%
I have developed my ability to plan and manage projects to achieve objectives. 61% 71%
I developed my ability to identify opportunities to generate new solutions to real problems. 52% 71%
I developed my leadership ability. 45% 71%
I developed my ability to deal with risky situations. 33% 71%
I developed innovative ideas. 37% 36%
Mean of each discipline 49% 68%

Business skill development was the construct that obtained the worst evaluation, it is noticed that it has room
for improvement for the practices analysed in this article. The indexes were considered low when students
were asked whether they had learned management techniques during the deployment of the discipline. The
perception of development of business skills was higher at the entrepreneurial discipline with the mean of
51% against the mean of 11% in the technical discipline. The contents related to business skills is taught only
in the entrepreneurial discipline STEI, even though it can be noticed that the learning results of these topics
were low. These are very relevant techniques for entrepreneurial activity, which demonstrates a need for
improvement in future practices.
Table 4: Perception of development of business skills during the discipline

Situation STEI II
I have known business financial management techniques. 61% 14%
I have known marketing / business communication management techniques. 57% 14%
I have known business operational resource management techniques. 56% 0%
I have known people management techniques. 50% 14%
I have known business legal implications. 30% 14%
Mean of each discipline 51% 11%

With regard to the construct pedagogical approach, it is considered that the experience was well evaluated in
both disciplines. According to the students, the teacher / student relationship and the student / student
relationship were facilitated. This allowed the students to report that they had learned how to work in
groups. Regarding the essential purpose of AL strategies, which enables the student to be permanently active
in the learning process, it was reported that 69% of the students felt responsible for their learning (in both
disciplines). In general, the perception of effectiveness of the pedagogical approach (project based learning) in the
technical discipline was higher than in the entrepreneurial discipline STEI.

Table 5: Perception of effectiveness of the pedagogical approach (project based learning).

Situation STEI II
The teacher / student relationship was facilitated. 83% 57%
The student / student relationship was facilitated. 76% 79%
I learned to work in a group. 74% 79%

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 I felt like an active agent in your learning process. 69% 79%
I felt responsible for my own learning. 63% 93%
The learning was acquired when dealing with actual problems. 61% 50%
I developed skills that would not be developed by another method 46% 57%
Mean of each discipline 65% 73%

4 Data Discussion
This is the question that guided the study: How can a technical discipline collaborate to develop
entrepreneurial skills compared to a discipline of entrepreneurship?
Due to the importance of entrepreneurial education to engineering context added to the difficulty some
Engineering schools have to offer this extra content it can be considered that a technical discipline can be as
effective as an entrepreneurial discipline to promote the development of entrepreneurial skills. So that, it
would be useful expand the learning results of the engineering technical formation in order to develop
important transversal skills considered entrepreneurial skill. It must be emphasised that the hands-on
activities to develop a prototype, in the Instrumentation Laboratory, in the technical discipline II played an
important role to help students to develop their entrepreneurial skills.
As it was demonstrated in the previews session, both discipline had similar effectiveness to motivate students
to perform in an entrepreneurial manner. The motivation to manage or to start a new business generated by
the disciplines can be considered low because it does not represent the majority of the students analyzed
(50% for STEI and 36% for II). Never then less, this percentage is similar to Brazilian students percentage of
potential entrepreneurs identified by Endeavor Brasil (2017) which is 21% of the students.
In general, the application of the active learning strategy PBL had positive impacts on students' learning,
who experienced the development of projects that generated solutions to real problems. It is important to
emphasise that technical disciplines will be able to impact the entrepreneurial behaviour of student if they
are based in active learning strategies such PBL. As advocated by Pretorius et al., (2005) the facilitator plays
an important role, and it can be concluded that the facilitator’s performance was decisive to motivate and
transmit knowledge in the experiences reported. It must be stressed that the facilitator/instructor is
important because he or she will choose the strategy and will lead student through the learning process. The
learning process is not centred on him or her like in a traditional way of teaching (Prince, 2004) but is
intentionally guided by the facilitator/instructor. The assessment procedure used in the technical discipline
was important engage students to collaborate with each other. It was decisive to develop the team working
skills and leadership.

Regarding the questions that reflect the perception of development of business skills during the program,
important considerations on the opportunities for improvement can be made in the entrepreneurial
discipline. It is believed that it is imperative that during the programme students are invited to reflect on the
mindset that governs their behaviour (Sidhu, Singer, Johnsson, & Suoranta, 2015). One of the highlights was
the issue related to the development of business skills, with particular emphasis on the legal implications of
business. At this point, it is understood that it will be necessary to reformulate the way the information is
shared, making use of actions of partnerships with specialized professionals. These findings highlighted the
importance of building a solid support network involving a whole range of aspects and roles, and carrying
out continuous monitoring. Never then less, it can be concluded that in the case of technical disciplines it is
very difficult to address this issue due to the specifics contents this discipline must cover.

The last group of questions focused on the perception of effectiveness of the pedagogical approach (PBL).
The mean of the responses was 65% to STEI and 73% to II, which shows that the students realized how
different the application of the adopted pedagogical technique was and how they benefited from it by
learning in a different way. This different form of learning involves improving the relationship between the
students and the teacher, between the students themselves, and also through the sharing of responsibility in

9
their learning. Students understood that the teacher can facilitate the learning process, but they need to take
an active role in developing the activities.

Data showed that those pedagogical experiences were good enough to generate an attitudinal and
behavioural modification by the participant after having attended the programme no matter it was
exclusively about entrepreneurship or about a technical issue. The authors also noticed, by this research, that
this modified attitude will lead to activities associated with business start-ups or entrepreneurship on
established enterprises in the future. The survey indicated that the facilitators impacted the participant in
such a way that the attitude and behaviour were modified. Nevertheless, the outcomes of start-up creation
can only be measured in the future.

5 Final Consideration
It can be said that a technical discipline can develop entrepreneurial skills and can motivate students to
perform in an entrepreneurial manner if they are based in active learning strategies such as PBL. PBL is one of
the methodologies that help students and teachers build learning environments. With all of PBL´s
characteristics, it is possible to development strategies to obtain learning results: students learn and apply
important ideas, development collaborative activities to find solutions to the driving question, students can
learn with technologies and create a set of tangible products. Compared to an entrepreneurial discipline, a
technical one is not effective to teach business skills related to marketing, operations, finance and legal
implication. But it is not the purpose of this argument once a technical discipline has its own contents to
cover. In reality, engineer students can access this knowledge in other disciplines which content is related to
business. Yet, It was noted that the motivation could be greater if the formation and pulverization of the
entrepreneurial culture was deployed throughout the course, and not only in some disciplines in different
semester. It is understood that teachers should constantly seek the updating of techniques and mechanisms
to improve the sharing of knowledge with students. Another important aspect to be considered in future
experiments is the assessment of knowledge and skills before and after the disciplines. This procedure would
allow for more accurate comparisons of the behavioural changes that the program generated. As possibilities
for future studies, the authors aim to analyze the impact of extra-class activities in the development of
entrepreneurial skills and yet compare practices of other technical disciplines. This study showed that the
entrepreneurial education in the engineering context can improve. For this reason, entrepreneurship cannot
be encapsulate in one discipline. In doing so, technical disciplines can do the job in a twofer proposal. It is
possible to "kill two birds with a stone". In a technical discipline it is possible to teach technical knowledge
and help students to develop their entrepreneurial mindset. PBL approach can be effective in this purpose
engaging students in an interesting journey. This research pointed out opportunities for improvement in the
practice of involved facilitator, such as the integration of technological and entrepreneurial disciplines, the
involvement of external mentors and professionals, and a solid behaviour orientation toward an
entrepreneurial mindset.

6 References

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