Learning Styles and Team Roles - Lessons for Gregorc Based Teams for Effective Enterprice Development

"The nice thing about teamwork is that you always have others on your side." (Margaret Carty) Entrepreneurship education is receiving more focus as the contemporary economic environment continues to show limited recovery from the financial malaise of the past 5 years. This coupled to the recognition of the role of entrepreneurs and SMEs, as ‘key generators of employment and income, and drivers of innovation and growth’ (OECD: Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs and Local Development 2009:6) is changing the role of entrepreneurship education across society. The OECD report continues and observes that in the European Union SMEs ‘account for over 99% of all enterprises...[g]iven their importance in all economies, they are essential for the economic recovery’ (ibid). For this reason the current global economic crisis has given much impetus to both the concept of entrepreneurship and the nature of entrepreneurship education. The period up to 2007/08 saw entrepreneurship education as a burgeoning discipline in academia. In the current economic environment, with declining labour market absorption rates, entrepreneurship education has become both a national economic and education imperative. As early as 2000, in the USA Charney and Libecap observed that ‘whereas 15 years ago only a handful of schools offered courses in entrepreneurship, today more than 1,500 colleges and universities offer some form of entrepreneurship training’ (Charney and Libecap 2000:1) This paper does not aim to present an in-depth analysis of all aspects of entrepreneurship training, however, against the backdrop of role and importance of entrepreneurship it aims to offer some basic insights into the pedagogic debates associated with entrepreneurship education. Further, it attempts to build a foundation for a costing model for teaching entrepreneurship education developed around consideration of learning styles. Fundamentally, the concept of effective enterprise education cannot be predicated on ‘one size fits all’, from both a pedagogic perspective and the implications for ineffective cost/benefit considerations. Firstly, we will address the general momentum supporting the global focus on entrepreneurship education and issues associated with entrepreneurship education, followed by a basic analysis of Gregorc learning styles and implications for teaching methodologies and finally possible implications for costing will be assessed and suggestions offered for further research