How does social interaction facilitate experiential learning in enterprise education: A case of the teen entrepreneurs competition

While constructivist, learner-centred approaches are considered to be more effective than traditional, teacher-centred approaches for the delivery of enterprise education for the youth, the majority of the current focus has been concentrated upon the uses of experiential learning without much attention to the social interactions within the learning process of enterprise education activities. Social interaction is also known as educational interaction when it occurs in small social units and in forms of face-to-face interaction (Vanderstraeten, 2004). Through social interaction, participants act in different ways in response to the stimulus raised in the social unit. It is able to create a new level of learning on the basis of participants' stimulus. However, the interactive nature of enterprise education has received relatively less attention even though social interactions are considered to be critical in the learning process. As an effort to address this issue, we conducted an empirical study to investigate the development of social interactions and their impacts on developing students' entrepreneurial characteristics throughout an enterprise education activity which is called the Teen Entrepreneurs Competition (TEC). All 420 participants of TEC were the population of this study. With the use of a mixed approach involving both quantitative and qualitative methods for data collection and analysis, the development and impacts of four key types of social interactions were investigated, including the interactions with team members, activity facilitators, school teachers and other business stakeholders during the venturing process. The findings showed that the participants' entrepreneurial characteristics such as decision making and risk management would be developed and enhanced through the four key types of social interactions. The findings also provided useful insights for enhancing non-classroom based activities and authentic learning in other teaching contexts. The results complement the existing literature on enterprise education by extending the current focus on the experiential aspect towards the interactive aspect during the learning process. It is recommended that enterprise education activities should maximize participants' social interaction opportunities and facilitate participants to reflect upon their social interactions for a better learning.