INNOVA Research Journal 2017. Vol. 2, No.8.1 pp. 86-91
Mediation, Lantolf and Poehner´s (2011) concept of Dynamic Assessment, and Béchard and
Toulouse´s (1991) Pedagogical Model in Entrepreneurship.
Key words: entrepreneurial minds; zone of proximal development; mediation; dynamic
assessment; simulation; pedagogical model
Introduction
The current unemployment in young adults in developing countries such as Ecuador is
due to the collapse of the social security system, the increase in workers’ contribution to the
retirement system, and the economic crisis. According to the Institute Nacional de Estadísticas y
Censos (INEC, 2017), which is the institution that provides official demographic and social
information in Ecuador, the unemployment rate in June of this year for youth (labor force ages
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5-24) was at 9.6 percent and for young adults (labor force ages 25 -34) was at 5.9 percent.
Additionally, for the same age groups, the underemployment rates were at 23.5 percent and at
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0.9 percent respectively, which is higher compared to the national average.
Entrepreneurship has been an adaptive strategy that youth use in the face of widespread
unemployment. In fact, youth in Mediterranean countries in south Europe (Italy, Greece, etc)
have been shown to be more entrepreneurial than youth in richer countries like Germany or
Denmark (Hatfield, 2015; Walther, 2006). Therefore, there is a necessity to develop
entrepreneurial competencies in higher education students. However, the main problem with
current teaching practices and curricula of business development is that there is a gap between
the theory of entrepreneurship and the simulation, and between simulation and the
entrepreneurial reality. In this sense, educators are challenged with designing effective learning
opportunities for students to foster entrepreneurship in higher education programs (Kuratko,
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005). Based on Kuratko’s (2005) analysis, several fundamental aspects must be taken into
consideration when students learn business concepts: business plans, students’ business start-ups,
consultation with practicing entrepreneurs, computer simulations, and behavioral simulations,
interviews with entrepreneurs, environmental scans, live cases, and field trips. In the Ecuadorian
context, the majority of the courses in entrepreneurship in higher education lack the connection
between theory, simulation, and reality that is needed to assist youth in creating their own labor
market opportunities.
Little research has analyzed in-depth the relationship between entrepreneurial
development and higher education. Unfortunately, business programs in higher education pay
little attention to the use of communication and information technologies, cognitive processes,
collaborative learning, personal growth, business ethics, or the development of critical thinking
(Béchard & Grégoire, 2005). Current efforts to develop business competencies in students are
not enough to develop real business ideas in the local area. Higher education institutions often
struggle to provide authentic entrepreneurial perspectives and challenges that the entrepreneurial
students will have to face in the real business world. In this sense, Béchard and Grégoire (2005)
state that students must interact with “an entrepreneur who has paid the price, faced challenges,
and endured the failures” (p. 589). In higher education in Ecuador, educative models in
entrepreneurship are experimental and need to be consolidated (Robayo, 2009). To sum up, in
the field of entrepreneurial development in higher education in Ecuador there is a gap between
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