Innovative pedagogical approaches for developing students' mindsets to enhance their learning experience and future employability.

Bremner, Pauline; Air, Carol; Moule, Chris

Abstract

The development of students' entrepreneurial and innovative mindsets requires varied methods of teaching in degree programmes to be successful. The Robert Gordon University (RGU) Innovation Award - adapted with permission from the Scottish Institute for Enterprise Scottish Innovative Student Awards (SISA) - seeks to do this via a three-tiered programme. At RGU the level two transdisciplinary workshop seeks to develop initiative, integrity, interdisciplinary and influencing skills in our participating students. By working with local businesses on a "wicked problem", the students encounter "real-world" issues. Being transdisciplinary by nature has made the level two participants recognise the benefits, which include collaborating, innovative decision-making, improving their presentation skills, and giving them confidence to collaborate out-with and across their disciplines. Breaking down barriers via this pedagogic approach prepares RGU graduates for the fourth industrial revolution. This future-proofing aids in the emergence of new employment opportunities (Davidson, 2020) and considers the top ten skills required (World Economic Forum 2022), where critical thinking and problem solving are important. Taking into account the QAA (2018) framework and the Sustainable Development Goals (2022), the award has created entrepreneurial mindsets with qualitative interview feedback garnered from a small sample of award holders. Analysis of the rich data has highlighted confidence, student preference for transdisciplinary teaching methods and design thinking as key to their learning experience. This is something universities need to consider in their teaching strategies, to take students out of silos. Longer term examples of graduates' attributable enhancements include the development of Sustainable Fashion Scotland, a vertical wind farm in Wales and entries into the RGU Supply Chain (CIPS) Symposium. It is clear that transdisciplinary methods of teaching have aided in these students' entrepreneurial development and future-proofed their careers.

Citation

BREMNER, P., AIR, C. and MOULE, C. 2023. Innovative pedagogical approaches for developing students' mindsets to enhance their learning experience and future employability. Presented at the 2023 International higher education teaching and learning annual conference (HETL 2023): re-imagining education: collaboration and compassion, 12-14 June 2023, Aberdeen, UK.

• Presentation Conference Type: Presentation / Talk
• Conference Name: 2023 International higher education teaching and learning annual conference (HETL 2023): re-imagining education: collaboration and compassion
• Start Date: Jun 12, 2023
• End Date: Jun 14, 2023
• Deposit Date: Jun 26, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 26, 2023
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Keywords: Undergraduate students; Graduate skills; Student entrepreneurship
• Public URL: https://rgu-repository.worktribe.com/output/1997558