Matemaatika- ja informaatikaõpetajate arvamus ettevõtlusõppest

Abstract

In the Estonian general education system, efforts have been underway for quite some time to promote entrepreneurship education and the development of students' entrepreneurial skills and competencies. Ideally, the entire educational institution should be involved in this, including not only the entrepreneurship education teachers but also teachers of all other subjects. In the master's thesis, mathematics and informatics teachers were examined to determine their opinions on entrepreneurship education. For this purpose, a web-based survey was conducted, involving teachers of all ages from all over Estonia. The results revealed that more than half of the participating teachers lacked a work environment focused on consciously developing entrepreneurial competencies. Over half of the teachers assessed their knowledge of entrepreneurship as either limited or non-existent. However, the majority of mathematics and informatics teachers approached entrepreneurship education in its broader definition, where the goal of entrepreneurship education, in addition to sharing knowledge about entrepreneurship, is to make students more creative, oriented towards opportunities, proactive, and innovative. The majority of teachers agreed that entrepreneurship education should be a mandatory subject in the high school level, while slightly less than half of them considered it necessary at the primary school level. More than two-thirds of mathematics and informatics teachers believed that developing entrepreneurial skills was feasible in their classroom. Most of the participants in the study believed that mathematics and informatics teachers need knowledge about entrepreneurship education, and a significant portion of them expressed willingness to participate in entrepreneurship-related training. The research holds practical value by contributing to the development and planning of entrepreneurship-related training for mathematics and informatics teachers, both in regular and continuing education.