Abstract:

In many countries, institutions of Higher Education are relevant actors and proactive agents of economic and social innovation. Specifically, the expansion of the universities over the last four decades is one of the most relevant facts to understand how the recent diffusion of approaches to business in technology and management programmes demands significant changes in teaching practice and theory.

For this reason, the evaluation of experiential academic practices promoting both the entrepreneurship and the creation of spin-offs worldwide, is a relevant question to analyze in Education and Pedagogy.

From a comparative perspective, the recent application of didactic methodologies emphasizing the students’ proactive immersion and their involvement during the course, reveal a growing interest in grasping how the students’ practical engagement during the teaching process impact on their learning outcomes. However, the empirical application of didactic methodologies promoting the creation of business and spin-offs among students requires the adequate validation of the teaching processes in order to disseminate this approach in the classroom.

In this paper, the specific objectives are the following:
1) to make a diagnosis of the particular pedagogical actions within the scope of the research;
2) to describe a set of experiential techniques providing positive outcomes in the learning process of the students in the classroom; and
3) to evaluate empirically the main variables for success of this academic process.

Based on a commercial analysis with geo-demographic criteria according to the syllabus within the specific context of a Chilean private university, this work is oriented to develop certain generic competencies by means of training in the classroom as an important tool for improving educational processes at universities. Moreover, this research contributes to promote Management and Business education by empirically describing the relevance of experiential learning of economic and social entrepreneurial projects.

The outline of this paper is the following. The first section refers the introduction and motivations related to this research. Second, we review the literature on didactic strategies and approaches to experiential learning in Higher Education oriented to promote participative styles in teaching and learning processes. Third, a systematic method for implementing these practices in the classroom is described in this paper: in this context, a simple methodology to collect and analyze data is presented. Fourth, a comprehensive discussion of the results is carried out. Finally, the last section is devoted to the conclusions, implications in the classroom and future research. The findings of this research will be relevant in decisions of educational policy, but also on the management theory and practice in the scope of this study.

Keywords:

Knowledge Management, Geographic Information Systems, teaching innovation, business process, Higher Education.