THE IMPACT OF ACTIVE LEARNING ON

ENTREPRENEURIAL MINDSET
B Lena Nuryanti
Faculty of Business and Economics Education, Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia

ABSTRACT

Entrepreneurial Learning in Higher Education should generate graduates who are prepared
to be an entrepreneur. The problem underlying this study is the students’ lack of
entrepreneurial mindset. This study attempts to design a Pattern of Entrepreneurial Learning
through active learning. Active learning is any kind of learning that allows the students to
actively participate in the learning process through interaction, both among the students and
between the students and the teachers (Bonwell, 1995). The aim of this study is to find out
1) the active learning of the students of the 2014 class of Business Management Education,
Indonesia University of Education, 2) the entrepreneurial mindset of the students of the 2014
class of Business Management Education, Indonesia University of Education, and 3) the
extent of active learning’s impact on students’ entrepreneurial mindset of the 2014 class of
Business Management Education, Indonesia University of Education. The sample of this
study is 70 students of the 2014 class of Business Management Education Program,
Indonesia University Education. The data analysis techniques used in this study is the
simple linear regression, calculated using the SPSS 21.0 for windows software. The findings
of this study are: 1) the Active Learning on the 2014 class of Business Management
Education Program, Indonesia University of Education is in the category of very high; 2) the
entrepreneurial mindset of the 2014 class of Business Management Education, Indonesia
University of Education is in the high category; and 3) the entrepreneurial mindset is
positively influenced by the active learning, with coefficient of determination of 18.8%. The
findings of this study are recommended as the basis of future studies concerning active
learning with other indicators and objects of study.

Keywords: Active Learning, Entrepreneurial Mindset

INTRODUCTION

Essentially, education has two main responsibilities. The first is to prepare a

generation that is adaptable to the environmental expectations. The second duty is to
prepare the generation to solve the problems it faces in new ways. Through the first process,
the students learn to understand the existing condition and pattern (trends) around them,
while through the second process, they are urged to innovate. One of the bitter realities
facing Indonesia nowadays is the problems of unemployment and labor. Education in this
country has managed to produce generations with job-seeking mindset. Most of university
graduates are busy trying to find a job, while the employment opportunities are very limited
(Putu Aditya Antara, 2012: 1).
A mindset is shaped through education, experience, and assumption one has
towards everything. The way he act and react on something is greatly influenced by his
mindset. It is important because it is related with the process of decision making. There are
two kinds of mindset in human. The first is a fixed mindset, including being selfish,
introvert, like to work alone, opposing others, and even feeling that he is destined to be poor.
The other mindset is the developing mindset, which emphasizes optimism, positive thinking,
diligence, hardworking, and believing in his ability to change something. In the business
world, a businessman has to have an entrepreneurial mindset. It is the mindset developed
and designed by an entrepreneur to make sound decisions.
Entrepreneur mindset is productive, creative, and innovative because this is the
mindset needed by all entrepreneurs to run their enterprises (www.kompasiana.com.
accessed 20.15 WIB. Sunday, 25 October 2015). Entrepreneurial mindset can be developed
with various ways, one of which is through learning, both in and outside a classroom.
Learning is essentially an attempt to direct the students into the learning process so that they
may achieve the expected goals of learning. Learning should always pay a close attention to
the individual differences of students, because they are the ones who do the learning.
Education that future society demands is the one with high-quality process and
result, in terms of academic, emotional, and spiritual guidance. In a high quality education,
teachers and lecturers are given freedom to actualize their subjects optimally in order to
develop students’ potentials. The model for such education refers to the Four Pillars of
Education proposed by Delors (1996: 85-97); the Learning to know, Learning to do,
Learning to live together and with each other, and Learning to be.
The process of education is inseparable from the process of learning. Learning is a
deliberate attempt to create conducive condition for students’ learning (Gagne and Briggs, 1974,
in Endang Mulyani, et al, 2008). This definition indicates that the primary objective or focus of
education and learning process is the students and their learning.
Students are different and unique individuals. Therefore, education (learning
process) in higher education should pay close attention to those individual differences, so
that education can change students from the state of unknowing to the state of knowing,
from not understanding to understanding, and from having bad behaviors to having good
behaviors. Professors tend to not care too much about these real conditions of students.
Most professors focus on the class as a whole, not on the individual or groups of individual
student, so that the individual differences of students are neglected. In addition, most of the
professors tend to use the same method of teaching in every class; which indicates that they
generalize their students and classes as the same.
Furthermore, professors often ask their students to recount, define, describe, outline,
and list materials, instead of analyze, draw conclusions and make inferences, connect,
synthesize, criticize, create, evaluate, and rethink about them. Consequently, many
universities produce shallow-minded graduates instead of critical-thinking ones. Those
graduates only analyze problems from its surface, not deeply think about the underlying
causes of the problems.
Critical thinking is an ability the students need to acquire and master in the higher
education learning process. Critical thinking trains the students to think higher and deeper
about something. It needs to be practiced in learning process so that students can have a
comprehensive understanding of the concept and the process of thinking to solve real life
problems. Critical thinking should be one of the learning experiences the students acquire
because it is needed by the students in implementing their knowledge and is critical for their
decision making process to solve real life problems.
Students’ critical thinking can be developed through a learning model that directs
students towards real life problems in their surroundings. Critical-thinking-oriented learning
needs a strategy to stimulate students to develop their thinking skills.
In a learning model which ignores students’ individual differences and is based on
the lecturers, it will be difficult to direct students to achieve the learning objectives.
However, this is what generally happens in conventional learning. As a consequence, there
are clear gaps between smart and less smart students in achieving learning objectives, which
leads to an incomprehensive and incomplete learning. This is an indication of the failure of
the learning process in higher education.
Putu Aditya Antara (2012: 4) notes that one of the future challenges facing
education in Indonesia is the great amount of Secondary School graduates who do not or
cannot continue their education, and the great amount of Higher Education graduates who
are unable to apply their knowledge in their daily life. Meanwhile, in this global era, foreign
workers will soon get in the country (Indonesia). Therefore, Indonesians need to have
competitive advantages. Indonesia needs to build an education system that can prepare
qualified human resources who are independent, skillful, adaptable, competitive, and able to
create jobs for themselves. These qualities are necessary in order to face the global
competition. In addition, education should always consider the needs and potentials of the
society. This is an absolute necessity because the Law on National Education explicitly
states that education in Indonesia should be society-based, requiring the implementation of
education to be based on the religions, social, culture, aspiration, and potentials existing in
the society (Sudijarto, 2000: 77).
Realizing this condition, the experts are attempting to find and formulate a learning
model that can encompass the individual differences of students. One of the proposed
learning models is the active learning. Generally, the learning process is interpreted as the
professors explaining subject material and the students passively listening to them.
However, many studies found that the quality of learning (education) will improve if the
students are given wide opportunity to ask questions, to discuss, and to actively apply their
newly-acquired knowledge. It is also found that this strategy can facilitate students to
understand and master the materials in easier and better ways.
The role of students and professors (lecturers) in active learning is very important.
The professors play the roles of facilitator, who facilitates students’ learning, and
administrator, who designs and delivers meaningful learning, as well as maintains the
necessary sources of learning. Students play their role by actively participating and
engaging themselves in the learning process. In active learning, students are guided, taught,
and trained to explore, search, and question things, examine the answer of their questions,
and deliver their findings in a communication. Students are expected to modify new
knowledge they obtained with their previous experiences and knowledge.
Through active learning, students are expected to have the ability to recognize and
develop their own learning capacity and potentials. In addition, students can
comprehensively and deliberately utilize the learning sources potentials in their
surroundings. They are trained to innovate, to think systematically, and to be critical and
responsive, so that they can solve real life problems through the exploration of meaningful
information. Active learning requires the educators to perform professionally, to teach
systematically based on the principles of effective and efficient learning. It means that
educators may engineer a learning model to be implemented systematically and to make the
learning process a meaningful experience for the students.
Therefore, the educators in higher education should possess the skills and abilities to
optimally utilize the learning resources available in their surroundings, to create and develop
new ideas; to reduce the gap between the knowledge students get from university and that
from society; to study the relevance and significance of the subject with real life needs; to
gradually and comprehensively develop students’ knowledge, skills, and attitudes; to
provide opportunities for students to optimally develop themselves based on their own
abilities; and to implement the principles of active learning.
This kind of active learning is assumed to be able to change students’ mindset;
turning the students from being selfish, introvert, working alone, and opposing others to
having entrepreneurial mindset that is optimistic, positive thinking, diligent, and hard
working.
Considering the background of the study described above, it is apparent that active
learning is a strategy that can be used to develop entrepreneurial mindset, which in turn will
create an entrepreneur. Therefore, it is important to conduct a study focusing on this matter,
under the title of “The Impact of Active Learning on Entrepreneurial Mindset of the
2014 Students of Business Management Education Department of Indonesia University
of Education.”

THEORETICAL REVIEW
Active Learning
Active learning is a learning that engages the learners to learn actively. When
students learn actively, they dominate the learning activity. They actively use their mind to
find the main idea of the subject they learn, solve problems, or apply what they just learn
into a real life problem (Hisyam Zaini, 2008: 16).
Active learning employs various methods to engage students in activities that build
group work in a short time and think about the subject actively (Silberman, 1996: 6).
Meanwhile, Bonwell (1995) notes that “active learning is any form of learning that enables
students to actively participate in the learning process, both in the forms of interaction
among the students and interaction between the students and the educators in the process.”
Furthermore, Bonwell (1995) proposes the following five indicators of active learning:
1. Emphasis on developing analytical and critical thinking skills
2. Students do something other than simply listen passively; they are engaged in activities
related to the course material.
3. Emphasis on exploring attitudes and values held about course material.
4. Students must adopt higher-order thinking—critical thinking, analysis, evaluation.
5. Both students and teachers receive more and faster feedback in the learning process.

Active learning aims to optimize the utilization of all potentials students have, so that
every student can obtain satisfying result of learning based on their own personal
characteristic. In addition, active learning is also meant to keep students focus on the
learning process (Machmudah, 2008). The following figure shows the syntax of active
learning model:

Phase 7:
Phase 1:
Phase 6: Specific real life application
General Concept is presented
General principle is discussed based on the general
to the group
principles

Phase 2: Phase 8:
Phase 5:
Specific real life application is
Specific information Group discussion, followed internalized by individuals
concerning theconcept is directly by conclusion of
based on their own need and
obtained by the group activities
readiness

Phase 4: Phase 9:
Phase 3:
Group directed activities and Representatives act based on
The group conducts activities
consequences what they have learned

FIGURE 1
ACTIVE LEARNING MODEL

Entrepreneurial Mindset
Entrepreneurial mindset is one’s entrepreneurial-oriented mindset that always
chooses to take a chance of uncertainty rather than avoid it, always see things in simpler
ways than other people who see things complicatedly, always want to learn something from
risk-taking activities (Mc Grath & MacMillan, 2000: 2).
The following is five characteristics of entrepreneurial mindset possessed by an
entrepreneur according to McGrath & MacMillan (2000: 3; in Sandy Wahyudi, 2012: 105-
6):
1. They passionately seek new opportunities
Habitual entrepreneurs stay alert, always looking for the chance to profit from change and
disruption in the way business is done. Their greatest impact occurs when they create
entirely new business models. New business models revolutionize how revenues are
made, costs are incurred, or operations are conducted, throughout the entire industry
2. They pursue opportunities with enormous discipline
 Habitual entrepreneurs not only are alert enough to spot opportunities, but make sure that
they act on them. Most maintain some form of inventory, or register, or unexploited
opportunities. They make sure that they revisit their inventory of ideas often but they
take action only when it is required. They make investment only if the competitive arena
is attractive and the opportunity is ripe.
3. They pursue only the very best opportunities
Habitual entrepreneurs pursue only the best opportunities and avoid exhausting
themselves and their organization by chasing after every option. Even though many
habitual entrepreneurs are wealthy, the most successful remain ruthlessly disciplined
about limiting the number of project they pursue. They go after a tightly controlled
portfolio of opportunities in different stages of development. They tightly link their
strategy with their choice of projects, rather than diluting their efforts too broadly.
4. They focus on adaptive execution, not mere planning
People with entrepreneurial mindset execute; they do not analyze new ideas longer than
necessary. However, they are also very adaptive—able to change directions as the real
opportunity, and the best way to exploit it, evolves.
5. They engage the energies of everyone in their domain
Habitual entrepreneurs involve many people—both inside and outside the organization—
in their pursuit of an opportunity. They create and maintain networks of relationships
rather than working alone, making the most of the intellectual and other resources people
have to offer and helping those people to achieve their goals as well.
Based on the description above, active learning certainly holds some impacts on the
entrepreneurial mindset. The paradigm used in this study is as follows:

Active Learning
1. Emphasis on developing analytical and
critical thinking skills Entrepreneurial Mindset
2. Students do not learn passively, but 1. Passion to pursue new opportunities
are engaged in activities related to the 2. Pursuing only the best opportunity
course material 3. Pursuing opportunities with enormous
3. Emphasis on exploring attitudes and discipline
values held about course material 4. Focus on execution, not mere planning
4. Students must adopt higher-order 5. Engaging the energies of everyone in
thinking--critical thinking, analysis, and their domain
evaluation
5. Faster feedback in the learning process
Mc. Grath & Mc.millan (2000:3)

Bonwell (1995)

FIGURE 2
RESEARCH PARADIGM
RESEARCH METHOD
 This study uses entrepreneurial approach, particularly concerning the impact of
active learning on entrepreneurial mindset. The objects of the study are active learning, as
the independent variable (X), and entrepreneurial mindset as the dependent variable (Y).
The independent variable (X) consists of several sub-variables: emphasis on developing
analytical and critical thinking skills; students doing something other than simply listen
passively and are engaged in activities related to the course material; emphasis on exploring
attitudes and values held about course material; students adopting higher-order thinking—
critical thinking, analysis, evaluation; and more and faster feedback in the learning process.
While the dependent variable (Y) includes passionately seeking new possibilities, only
pursuing the very best opportunities; pursuing opportunities with enormous discipline, focus
on execution, and engaging energies and capabilities of everyone in their domain. The
respondents for this study are the students of the 2014 class of Business Management
Education Department of Indonesia University of Education.
This study is conducted in Indonesia University of Education. Since the study is
conducted in less than a one-year period, the cross sectional method is implemented. Husein
Umar (2008: 45) states that “cross sectional method is a research method that studies an
object in a certain period of time, or not continuously in a long-term period.”
Based on the level of description and the research subject, this study belongs to the
descriptive and verification research, implementing explanatory survey method. The
population of this study is the 2014 students of Business Management Education
Department of Indonesia University of Education, with total N = 70 students. In this study,
the number of sample is chosen using the saturated sampling method, in which the whole
population becomes the sample.

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

1. Descriptive Discussion
a. Active Learning
Based on the empiric findings concerning the implementation of active learning in the
2014 students of Business Management Education Department of Indonesia University of
Education, the indicator of more and faster feedback in learning process provides
significant contribution for entrepreneurs to achieve active learning.

b. Entrepreneurial Mindset
 Based on the empiric findings concerning the entrepreneurial mindset in the 2014
students of Business Management Education Department of Indonesia University of
Education, the dimension of pursuing only the very best opportunities provides
significant contribution in achieving entrepreneurial mindset.

2. Verification Discussion
Using the SPSS 21.0 for Windows software, the following coefficient of regression is
found:
TABLE 1
SIMPLE LINEAR REGRESSION MODEL
Coefficientsa

Model Unstandardized Coefficients Standardized Coefficients t Sig.

B Std. Error Beta

(Constant) 56827.752 7797.974 7.288 .000

1
Active Learning .775 .195 .433 3.966 .000

a. Dependent Variable: Entrepreneurial Mindset

Source: Data Processing, 2015

Y= 56827.752 + 0.775X
The constant of 56827.752 indicates that without active learning, the entrepreneurial
mindset will only amount to 56827.752. The coefficient of regression of 0.755 per unit
means that each increase in active learning will improve the entrepreneurial mindset as
much as 0.755 per unit, and vice versa, any decrease in active learning will reduce the
entrepreneurial mindset in the same amount.
The impact of active learning on the entrepreneurial mindset is calculated using the
following model summary:
TABLE 2
MODEL SUMMARY
Coefficientsa

Model Unstandardized Coefficients Standardized Coefficients t Sig.

B Std. Error Beta

(Constant) 56827.752 7797.974 7.288 .000

1
Active Learning .775 .195 .433 3.966 .000

a. Dependent Variable: Entrepreneurial Mindset

Source: Data Processing, 2015

From the table, we can calculate the value of coefficient of determination as follow:
KD = 0.188 x 100%
KD = 18.8%
The result of the calculation indicates that the value of KD (Coefficient of Determination) is
18.8%; which means that 18.8% of entrepreneurial mindset is impacted by active learning,
the remaining 81.2% is influenced by other variables beyond the scope of examination of
this study.
HYPOTHESIS TEST
TABLE 3
RESULT OF t-Test
Coefficientsa

Model Unstandardized Coefficients Standardized Coefficients t Sig.

B Std. Error Beta

(Constant) 56827.752 7797.974 7.288 .000

1
Active Learning .775 .195 .433 3.966 .000

a. Dependent Variable: Entrepreneurial Mindset

Source: Data Processing, 2015

The measurement of t-Test using the SPSS 21.0 for windows shows the value of tcalc
of 3.966, with significance level of 5%. Compared with the value of t table, the tcalc is higher
(3.966 > 1.665), which leads to the finding that the null hypothesis (H 0) is rejected and the
Ha is accepted. In other words, active learning has positive impact on entrepreneurial
mindset.

CONCLUSION
Based on the discussion of the theory, findings, and linear regression analysis
concerning the impact of active learning on entrepreneurial mindset of the students of the
2014 class of the Business Management Department of Indonesia University of Education in
this study, the following conclusions are drawn:
1. The findings indicate that the active learning of the 2014 students of Business
Management Education Department of Indonesia University of Education belongs to the
category of very high, which means that the active learning is good. The indicator with
highest value is the 'more and faster feedback in the learning process, with a score of 930.
Meanwhile, the indicator of ‘emphasis on developing analytical and critical thinking
skills’ scores the lowest, with the score of 552.
2. The findings indicate that the entrepreneurial mindset of the 2014 students of Business
Management Education Department of Indonesia University of Education belongs to the
 category of high, which means that the active learning is good. The characteristic with
the highest value is the ‘pursuing only the very best opportunities’ characteristic, with a
score of 1.831. Meanwhile, the characteristic of ‘focusing on execution, not merely
planning’ scores the lowest.
3. The findings indicate that active learning has a positive impact on entrepreneurial
mindset, with a direct influence of 18.8%. This suggests that the better the
implementation of active learning is, the better the entrepreneurial mindset will be.

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