Towards Sustainable Value Creation: Students’ Perspective of Team Learning

Abstract

This paper studies student’s perceptions to team learning and team entrepreneurship (TLE) study path that has been employed to offer students a possibility to learn as team entrepreneurs in a Finnish Higher Education Institute since 2010. The goal for the study was to explore what kind of experiences current and alumni students have about the TLE study path, and how they value their experiences. The study is part of a larger study started in 2024. Data for the paper is qualitative and consists of three different datasets, one questionnaire for current students (n=24), and another questionnaire for alumni (n=9). In addition, 17 theme-based interviews were done among the TLE alumni, total number of informants is 50.  Grounded theory method including open, axial, and selective coding phases guided the data analysis. The results show that the TLE alumni value both meta-learning such as teamworking and dialogue skills and developing their content skills like understanding of how digital marketing tools are used in real customer projects. As a valuable topic discussed by the TLE alumni, was persistence to try and try again, and not to give up, to develop one’s abilities to learn. The regards the alumni wanted to send to current TLE students as well as organizing staff of the study paths was to foster to coach the ability to learn and adapt for students. In these current unpredictable times developing one’s resilience was expressed as crucial.  It was also suggested that the coaching process should include some mandatory elements such a book everyone should study or tools everyone should learn to guarantee a more common knowledgebase for the team.