The reflective entrepreneur: tools that increase metacognition during venture creation programs

Metacognition, thinking about thinking, is an important concept in entrepreneurship education due to its role in facilitating learning and reflection. However, little is known about how practitioners should implement metacognitive practices in entrepreneurship education. The purpose of this essay is to increase understanding of: a) the impact that entrepreneurship educators have on the development of students’ metacognitive abilities and b) how metacognition can be deliberately practiced. We propose this in the context of venture creation programs (VCPs). By integrating educational psychology literature with entrepreneurship education, we discuss how teachers can facilitate metacognitive practices, and we propose a metacognitive development model for entrepreneurship students. We demonstrate theoretically how this model can contribute to entrepreneurial learning through the development of metacognitive abilities, and we identify specific tools that entrepreneurship educators can implement. In this process, we offer new insights, demonstrating why these tools matter and how these practices should be implemented.