Effectiveness of early entrepreneurship education at the primary school level: Evidence from a field research in Morocco

• Published in: Citizenship, social and economics education Vol. 15; no. 2; pp. 83 - 103
• Main Author: Hassi, Abderrahman
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, England SAGE Publications 01.08.2016
• Subjects: Behavioral Objectives; Developmentally Appropriate Practices; Elementary School Curriculum; Entrepreneurship; Evidence; Foreign Countries; Intention; Likert Scales; Locus of Control; Predictor Variables; Pretests Posttests; Program Effectiveness; Questionnaires; Relevance (Education); Self Efficacy; Statistical Analysis; Statistical Significance; Thinking Skills; Morocco; primary school; objectives; entrepreneurship education
• ISSN: 1478-8047; 2047-1734
• DOI: 10.1177/2047173416650448

The present research is designed to identify the appropriate and relevant objectives that need to be pursued through entrepreneurial activities targeting elementary school children. It assesses the effectiveness of early entrepreneurship education. To do so, children aged 11 and 12 attended an entrepreneurial program and completed two versions of the same questionnaire before and after the program. We measured the development of three outcome sets of skills: non-cognitive entrepreneurial skills, cognitive entrepreneurial skills, and intentions to become an entrepreneur. The change in the dependent variable (the three sets of skills) is measured by the difference in this scale between using paired-sample t-test. Gender and parents’ occupation were controlled for. The findings of this study confirm that late childhood (11–12 years old) seems to be the adequate period in order to develop self-efficacy, a non-cognitive skill required to become an entrepreneur. Nonetheless, cognitive entrepreneurial skills and entrepreneurial intentions did not change after the program.