Entrepreneurial Teachers, Effectual Reasoning, and Risk in Science Reform

• In Event: 26.079 - Roundtable Session 7
  In Roundtable Session: 26.079-1 - Developing Teacher Leaders

Abstract

This is one of the first studies that situates “educational entrepreneur” into K-12 public education, and the first to introduce an instrument developed to measure effectual reasoning (a component of successful entrepreneurs) and correlate higher use of effectual reasoning with higher levels of innovations. (EnLiST) Entrepreneurial Leadership in STEM Teaching and learning, an NSF MSP grant, focused on arming teachers with deeper content, reform-oriented pedagogy, and aspects of entrepreneurial thinking. We found that risk influenced teacher leaders implementation of innovations with high innovators not displaying a higher propensity for risk, but viewing ‘uncertainty’ differently by associating it with more positive cognitive structures. Finally a wide variance in risk threshold was correlated to innovation levels among teacher leaders.

Authors

• Anita Martin, Vanderbilt University - Peabody College

• Fouad S. Abd-El-Khalick, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• Elisa Mustari, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• Raymond Price, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign