EFFECT OF ACTION-BASED EXPERIENTIAL APPROACH ON BUSINESS EDUCATION STUDENTS’ ENTREPRENEURIAL SKILLS ACQUISITION FOR BUSINESS OPERATION IN RIVERS STATE, NIGERIA
This study examines the effect of action-based experiential approach on Business education students’ entrepreneurial skills acquisition for business operation in Rivers State, Nigeria. To achieve this, two research questions and two hypotheses were formulated. Quasi-experimental research design was adopted for the study. The population and sample of the study consists of 134 NCE II Business education students during the 2017/2018 academic session. The sample was selected using purposive sampling technique. Two sets of instruments namely: Action-Based Experiential Entrepreneurial Learning Activities Guide (ABEELAG) and the Entrepreneurial Skills Assessment Tool (ESAT) were designed for the study. The instruments were face validated by three lecturers from University of Uyo, Akwa-Ibom State. The reliability of stability for the ESAT was ascertained using test-retest method to test for stability of the instrument. Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient (PPMC) was computed to obtain r – value of 0.84 for the two administrations and converted using the spearman brown prophetic formula to have reliability co-efficient of 0.72. Data collected for the study were analysed using mean scores for the research questions and t-test statistics computed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20.1 to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The results show that entrepreneurial skills can be highly acquired by Business education students when action-based experiential approach is used for entrepreneurship education than when direct instruction approach is used. The results also show that there is significant difference in the mean score of students in entrepreneurial skills acquisition when taught with ABEA as against DI approach. The result also shows that male and female students do not differ significantly in entrepreneurial skills acquisition when taught with project-based experiential approach. Based on the results and conclusions drawn, it was recommended among other things that a train-the-trainers workshop should be organized by institutions of higher learning for all lecturers handling entrepreneurship in business education to educate them on how to use action-based experiential approach for the practical aspect of entrepreneurship. Article visualizations
