Chapter 1: Why Content and Lecture Matter in Entrepreneurship Education Available to Purchase

There are those who suggest the experiential and action-oriented nature of entrepreneurship makes traditional content-focused lecture a less appropriate pedagogical approach when teaching entrepreneurship courses. This chapter challenges such suggestions, arguing that the lecture should be the centerpiece of entrepreneurship education, augmented by experiential learning tools and other pedagogical approaches. Such a blended model, when built around the lecture, has the potential to greatly enhance learning, improve student retention, encourage student thought and reflection, and better develop entrepreneurial skills and competencies associated with the entrepreneurial mindset. The chapter also summarizes the nature of the content delivered through entrepreneurship courses, classifying this content into three general categories, and concluding that this core content is substantive, complex, and highly inter-related. These characteristics reinforce the importance of great lectures for moving entrepreneurship education forward.