In universities, entrepreneurship education teachers tend to either adopt the discovery theory or follow their own instincts originating from their everyday observations of how entrepreneurs seem to manage their businesses. Figure 13.2 shows EE teachers' typical ontological conceptions at the university level. Discovery and trait theories as well as business functions dominate their understanding and, consequently, these traditional theories guide how EE teachers at universities run their EE courses. As a result, EE teachers typically concentrate on how to run a business rather than how to create new business opportunities or how to create a new business.
It is noteworthy that there is no ontological mismatch as such between these conceptions of entrepreneurship and education, despite applying the traditional behaviorist perspective on teaching and the traditional conception of entrepreneurship. However, these two outdated conceptions are not optimal because none of them acknowledge the student’s active and creative role. From the entrepreneurship viewpoint, this type of understanding means that the students are expected to discover existing opportunities, then use their gained business skills in developing successful businesses. From the educational perspective, students are viewed as passive and are expected to adopt the information their teachers have selected for them.
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