Entrepreneurially-Minded Learning and Teaching: A Core Element of KINETIC3

 From the 3/5/2021 newsletter

Perspective/Opinion

Entrepreneurially-Minded Learning and Teaching: A Core Element of KINETIC3

 

by Bipin Thapa, MD

 

Dr. Thapa provides an overview of what the KINETIC3 program hopes its participants will learn about the Entrepreneurial Mindset …

 

Teachers and educators do different things, but how often do we stop to consider and “What is the value of what I am doing?” or “What exactly are we trying to create?”

We need to think differently if we are to address these questions.

In medicine and education, we shy away from terms like, “Entrepreneurship” because of the incorrect assumption that entrepreneurs focus solely on monetary profit. But entrepreneurship is more than that. It encompasses ways of creating anything of “value” – and can concentrate on things such as services, scholarships, processes, and quality improvements. It can even focus on experiences.

Academic Entrepreneurship creates sustained value in multiple dimensions that are financially and/or logically stable. It is competitive in the “marketplace”; the “market” here reflects a broader platform that includes, but is not limited to, scientific and peer-reviewed venues. Entering this market requires an Entrepreneurial Mindset (EM). EM is, in essence, a collection of mental habits like attentiveness toward opportunities, focus on their impact, and intent to create value. This learned set of values offers a way of thinking about the world and acting upon what we see. EM empowers the practitioner to question, adapt, think differently, and make positive change; it equips one to identify opportunities and create value in any context.

By building on work borrowed from our Kern Engineering Entrepreneurial Network (KEEN) colleagues, we are deliberately creating an entrepreneurially minded learning and teaching culture in the KINETIC3 program. Our teachers and educators start from the big ideas of why our learners need to learn something and then move to what they need to ask to answer the more important questions. We push them to discern how best they can accomplish the goals. We want them to focus on learning objectives that reflect the tandems of mindset and skillset. That is another offer of value. Our instructional methods must be inclusive and respectful of the differing learning styles of our learners; this is critical to excite every learner. Finally, our assessment methods must be practice-relevant, as we know that assessment drives learning. 

The diagram shows the big picture of how the Entrepreneurial Mindset guides the process from identifying big picture themes through instruction to assessment. 

We believe that by training entrepreneurially minded faculty, we will promote long term institutional change. Having a significant number of KINETIC3 alumni teaching students and residents with techniques built on the Entrepreneurial Mindset, can lead to “good” disruption and new ways of developing identity formation. 

Bipin Thapa, MD, MS, FACP, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine (General Internal Medicine) and Assistant Dean of the Clinical Science Curriculum at MCW. He is a member of the Faculty Pillar and of the KINETIC3 Steering Committee of the Robert D. and Patricia E. Kern Institute for the Transformation of Medical Education.