Implementing a constructivist blended learning approach in a third-year entrepreneurship education class

Abstract

An absence of clear guidelines in the Minimum Requirements for Teacher Education Qualifications (DHET 2011; 2015) finds teacher education institutions having to resort to developing ‘best’ practice pedagogies, indicating a need to research and design a progressive spectrum of learning orientations. Using a mixed research method, the author conducted a study on a collaborative blended learning pedagogical approach based on computer-mediated collaborative learning. The study drew on the Communicative Model of Collaborative Learning and the Cape Peninsula University of Technology’s Faculty of Education’s teacher attributes. The author posits that, in social entrepreneurship education, face-to-face environments may acquire significant benefits from using asynchronous group discussion forums – a form of online communication outside the constraints of time and place – in combination with film. The research results indicated that the dominant orientation of pre-service educators was towards ‘learning’, rather than ‘achieving ends’ and/or ‘self-representation and promotion’; and the teacher attributes required of an accomplished teacher were prevalent in the online group discussions.