Abstract:

The early development of enterprise and entrepreneurial competence, as a one of precondition for the realization of lifelong learning process, is becoming a priority task of the European systems of education in the past few years. As the part of European education systems, enterprise education, as the most explicit model for development personal enterprise and entrepreneurial competence, has a relatively long tradition. In contrast to these, there are educational systems, like system of compulsory education in Croatia, which has recently opted for coherent curricular reform and development of key competencies and functional literacy, where ˝enterprising students˝ and ˝being enterprising˝ are relatively new educational concepts and expected educational outcomes. Although, enhancing how the be enterprising in and out of school life and establishing entrepreneurial spirit among pupils and teachers are not part of the existing educational traditions, it is wrong to assume that enterprising is not “happening” in Croatian schools.

In this paper we deal with determination of the enterprising pupils based on their socio-demographic characteristics. Furthermore, we are trying to determine the relationship between pupil’s self-report enterprise and their perceptions on properties (self-efficacy, self-esteem, tendency towards innovation and proactivity, tendency to be goal oriented) which are theoretically associated with concept of ˝being enterprising˝ as a part of the broader self-concept.

The aim of this study is to examine the possibility of prediction pupils being enterprising based on their socio-demographic characteristics and attitudes expressed towards innovation and proactivity, tendency to be goal oriented, assessing self-efficacy and self-esteem. The study included a sample of 1,962 sixth- and eighth-graders in Croatian elementary schools. The research instrument was designed in the form of a questionnaire containing a series of self-report measures and assessment scales. The socio-demographic data were collected by using short form of open and closed questions. The pupil’s attitudes assessments were gather by using the following scales: Entrepreneurial Drive Scale (Florin et al., 2007), Attitudes to Enterprise Test (Athayde, 2009; 2012), Self-Efficacy Questionnaire for Children (Murris, 2001), Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1965) and modified version of Tendency to be goal oriented scale (Malouff et al., 1990).

By applying correlation and regression analysis, we have found that gender and age are statistically significant predictors of the self-assessment of being enterprising. Further, the strongest predictors of student’s being enterprising are innovativeness and proactivity, social-emotional self-efficacy and tendency to the goal orientation. These results, in theory, illuminate the background of the concept ˝being enterprising˝ in the school context. They also, in practice, show us that educational work targeted to develop these dimensions, for which we have found predictor value, greatly contributes to the pupils sense of being enterprising.

Keywords:

Education for enterprise, early development of enteprise and entrepreneurial competence, pupils’ self-assessment of being enteprising, elementary school.