When problem based learning becomes entrepreneurial – a facilitator view on student challenges

Integration of entrepreneurship in current engineering education emphasizes the need for engineers to initiate and drive innovation processes that transform ideas into societal value. Learnings from the history of engineering and the at times unsustainable impact of technology on society have drawn attention to user requirements and the societal context of technological innovations. In addition to this view, entrepreneurial education underlines the need to move beyond reactively addressing user requirements and societal developments to pro-actively creating opportunities and realizing their potential to change societal patterns and trajectories. Grand challenges as climate change and the recent COVID-19 pandemic have indeed confirmed the need for such abilities. This paper argues that when integrating entrepreneurship in engineering education, the pedagogical approach to how we teach entrepreneurial engineering will inevitably have to be re-visited. The study aims to explore the facilitation of entrepreneurial projects in a problem based learning (PBL) environment. Design based research was conducted to co-develop and test guidelines and models for entrepreneurial PBL based on existing PBL approaches. In this process, ten facilitators of entrepreneurial PBL projects were continuously challenged to change their perspective from being facilitators to students, from being practitioners to reflective practitioners. In this paper, we specially report on the part of the study investigating: What challenges do students experience when PBL becomes entrepreneurial? The paper concludes with insights on the nuances of entrepreneurial PBL and closes with a short discussion of the need for more research to ensure integration and not addition of entrepreneurship in engineering education.