IMPLEMENTING AND TESTING LEVEL I EXTENSION OF TRAINING FIRM METHOD

Abstract

ABSTRACT. This paper introduces an extension of the teaching-learning and evaluation model of Training-firms method, which supports high school economic curricula. We argue that hands-on business competences can be achieved by lowlevel business simulations between class members. Therefore, we advocate the organization of classroom as a virtual business environment, which groups students into several companies (mini training-firms) that interact directly. This is an advancement over the classic Training-firm method that requires an entire class to be organized as a company. We evaluate the impact of mini-firms based economic simulations, by field studies conducted in two high schools, in two consecutive school years. The research data is further supplemented by questionnaires applied to the whole studied population. The subjects of our research were high school tenth graders enrolled in Entrepreneurship Education class, respectively in the internship for the Trade and Tourism area of curriculum areas "Man and Society" and "Technology". Ultimately, our proposed Mini Training Firms method targets any high school students in technological and services curricula, with diverse skills and theoretic background.

Keywords

• training firm
• entrepreneurship
• teaching and learning model