Taking Social Entrepreneurship Education to the Next Level - A Teaching and Learning Project at Renaissance College

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by jay

A Canadian university study presents a student-centered redesign of a course on social entrepreneurship, developed at Renaissance College within a leadership education context. The initiative targeted higher learner engagement and satisfaction and focused on clarity of course requirements while strengthening self-directed and collaborative learning. Results indicate improvements in students’ learning experience, perceived transparency, and self-directed learning capability. The authors call for further research to support generalizable, evidence-based conclusions.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages20

Reading Time50 min

AccessFree to download

Background and purpose

Course redesign goals and learning outcomes

Implementation at Renaissance College

RCLP 4002 introduction and course framing

Collaborative syllabus framework and instructional changes

Feedback and evaluation results

Student engagement, satisfaction, and survey findings

Taking Social Entrepreneurship Education to the Next Level: A Teaching and Learning Project at Renaissance College Thomas Mengel, Maha Tantawy University of New Brunswick This study at a small Canadian university describes the student-centered re-design of a course about social entrepreneurship. The project was aimed at improving students' engagement and satisfaction. Our data suggests that the course redesign improved students' learning experience, clarity of course requirements, and students' self-directed learning. Further studies are necessary toglean generalizable data and form more robust conclusions, but this paper may be helpful for other scholarship of teaching and learning projects aiming at adult learner-oriented and evidence-based course redesign in other fields of study. Cette étude menée dans une petite université canadienne s'attache à décrire la refonte d'un cours sur l'entrepreneuriat social afin qu'il soit centré sur l'apprenant. Ce projet visait à accroître la participation et la satisfaction des étudiants. Selon nos données, il semble que larefonte du cours ait amélioré l'expérience d'apprentissage et d'autoapprentissage des étudiantstout en clarifiant les exigences du cours. D'autres études devront être menées afin de recueillir des données plus vastes et de formuler des conclusions plus solides. Néanmoins, cet article pourrait être utile à l'occasion d'autres projetsportant sur l'enseignement et l'apprentissage et visant la refonte de cours dans d'autres domaines d'étude afin que ces cours soient axés sur l'apprenant adulte et fondés sur des donnéesprobantes. In this paper, we reflect on the successes of re-designing the 4002: Change Leadership challenges and course "RCLP and Social Entrepreneurship" (RCLP 4002) at Renaissance College (RC), the University of New Brunswick's (UNB) interdisciplinary leadership school. We would like to gratefully acknowledge the funding received for this study from UNB's Centre for Enhanced Teaching and Learning (CETL) . Further, we would like to thank the editors of this journal and the two"blind peer reviewers" who have contributed invaluable suggestions and comments that have made this paper stronger. At RC, we focus on achieving various learning outcomes-knowing self and others, personal well-being, multi-literacy, social interaction, problem-solving, and effective citizenship - and on preparing learners to take a leadership role in their respective communities upon graduation (Mengel, 2006; Zundel, Bishop, Carr, Clarke, Colford, Mengelet al., 2006) . This reflection is set particularly in the context of RC's tradition of holding ourselves accountable for our teaching and learning approaches and practices (Zundel & Mengel, 2007; Mengel, 2016) . Further, the recent developments of the field of social entrepreneurship education (SEE; Mengel, Tantawy, & McNally, 2015; Tantawy, McNally, Mengel, Welsh, & Piperopoulos, 2017), and a selfdirected learning and collaborative teaching approach (Mengel, 2015; Mengel, forthcoming) have informed this study. RCLP 4002 was newly introduced in 2007. Course participants were mostly non-business oriented learners who had to take the course as part of their undergraduate leadership degree program. From the beginning, many learners perceived the course as too business oriented. This was likely due to students' perceptions of the term "entrepreneurship"in the course title. These reservations could historically be overcome by discussing the syllabus in detail and by contextualizing definitions of social entrepreneurship (SE) and other key terms, concepts, and issues. Students quickly learned that our approach went beyond a business focus and was based on the definition of SE "as entrepreneurship with social impact or with focus on a social mission" and on the understanding of SEE as "aiming at educating change agents from various disciplinary backgroundsand for different fields of practice (Mengel, Tantawy,& McNally, 2017

FAQs

What was the main goal of the course redesign for social entrepreneurship education?

To improve student engagement and satisfaction through a learner-centered redesign, including clearer course requirements and stronger self-directed learning.

How did course participants initially perceive the subject matter?

Many learners viewed the course as overly business oriented, likely influenced by how “entrepreneurship” appeared in the course title.

What evidence did the authors use to assess the impact of the redesign?

Student Opinion Surveys indicated higher agreement on positive learning experience, while clarity of communicated course requirements scored lower than in other courses.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by jay