Development of Entrepreneurial Attitudes Assessment Instrument for Freshman Students

Todd is a PhD Student in Engineering Education at Purdue University who's research is focused on en-trepreneurship education and entrepreneurship education as a component of modern engineering education efforts. He is a CAPES grantee and also professor in the Department of Mechanical and Materials Technology at the Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia da Bahia. He is a mechanical engineer and holds a Bachelor's degree in law and a Master's degree in mechanical engineering. He has been teaching at different levels, from the first year of technical high school to the final year of mechatronic engineering course, since 1995. He also has considerable experience in the design and implementation of mechatronic and production engineering courses. His non-academic career is centered on product development and manufacturing processes. M.D. WILSON is a lecturer for the Krannert School of Management, the entrepreneur-in-residence for the Office of Future Engineers, and a Ph.D. candidate at Purdue University in the College of Engineering; his " Pracademic " background combines rigorous research with practical experiences. Wilson started, sold, and consulted Fortune companies in the University-Industry entrepreneurial space for over twenty successful years. He earned Introduction Over the last decade, the number of university programs that focus on imbuing students, especially engineering students, with entrepreneurial skills have increased dramatically 1. Research tells us that it is possible to significantly increase student ability in content areas relevant to entrepreneurship through well planned educational interventions 1–4. However, one challenge faced by entrepreneurship programs is establishment and agreement on comprehensive and well-validated assessment instruments. A meta-analysis by Purzer et al. 5 found 51 different instruments in 29 journal and conference papers that focus on entrepreneurship. Most of these instruments evaluate entrepreneurship as a multidimensional characteristic. They use varying approaches designed to measure knowledge, skills, and psychological characteristics. Purzer found that while 67% of the instruments focus on skill assessment, only 27% focus on attitudes toward entrepreneurship. This suggests a gap on assessment instruments that explore the mindsets that students use to employ their newfound skills. The skills component of entrepreneurship is a logical focus of entrepreneurship education. Tracking students' growth in knowledge areas provides relevant data tracking entrepreneurial learning and ability. However, attitude components theorized to map to entrepreneurially relevant behaviors comprise an interesting area of study. Attitude characteristics supplement skill-based assessments by identifying specific orientations or responses that are tied to the use of entrepreneurial knowledge. Attitude approaches may …