The new culture of learning that my research has uncovered at Yale is driven by five factors: 1. self-directed apprenticeships (the wide toolbox framework), 2. students desire to build, create, and put something new into the world, 3. student oriented infrastructure for innovation, design and entrepreneurship, which is used to augment or supplement classroom learning, 4. peer-to-peer teaching and learning that includes extracurricular activities and clubs, and 5. tacit leadership training.

In theorizing about this new culture of learning, I am mindful that culture has meaning only in its social context, it has no significance by itself. (Leach 1965) Within the social context of higher education, education is shifting from a teaching focus in which instructors transfer knowledge to students, to an emphasis on students learning on their own, typically in forums, such as the Center for Engineering, Innovation and Design, that foster peer-to peer teaching and learning.

Contextually, how, what, where and why students learn has devolved increasingly to the individual students. As this devolution becomes institutionalized, responsibility for preparing to work in the new economy is borne by individual students. At the student level, they are assuming the risk of acquiring the appropriate knowledge and skills for the new economy. This assumption of risk is grounded in the nature of capitalism as theorized by neoliberalism – faith in individual agency and the logic and efficiency of free markets. This perspective shapes the lives and worldview of individual Americans because collectively they believe in individual responsibility and the overarching faith in the power of individual agency to determine one’s personal and professional fate.

At the institutional level, the momentum for delegating responsibility for how, what, where and why students learn is clarified by the theory of academic capitalism which explains the processes and means by which colleges and universities integrate with the new economy. It describes market and market-like behaviors. In the new context of higher education, students are essentially free agents who have to take control of how, what and why they acquire certain knowledge and skills.

Student-led entrepreneurship, under the auspices of the Yale Entrepreneurial Institute (“YEI”), is representative of how students use university student oriented infrastructure to facilitate learning in a self-directed and collaborative manner. Students conceptualize business ventures, then work with YEI staff and experienced mentors (many of whom are Yale alum) to build out their business models. YEI’s overarching approach is entrepreneurship pedagogy in an academic setting. They teach the lean startup methodology which emphasizes rapid prototyping – creating a minimum viable product and constant iterating based upon feedback from potential customers and clients. (The lean startup methodology, widely used by startups and taught at the Harvard B-School, was first promulgated by Eric Ries, a Yale alum, in his seminal book The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses.)

Recently, I attended YEI’s 2014 Demo Day which is illustrative of a successful student oriented experiment that bridges the gap between the traditional Yale education and the real world skills and knowledge that today’s students need and desire. At Demo Day, the 10 teams that participated in YEI’s 10-week accelerator program made pitch presentations demonstrating the progress that they had made in searching for a sustainable and scalable business models. This year’s presentations also included tummy zen, a 2013 YEI Summer Fellow, as well as presentations by participants in YEI Venture Creation Program (“VCP”). Participation by teams from the VCP is significant because VCP is the “pipeline for the YEI Summer Fellows Program,” said Jim Boyle, YEI Managing Director and co-founder. (This was my third consecutive Demo Day. Each successive year built on the progress of the prior year.)

Cudos to all of the teams and a special shout-out to 109 Design, the winner of this year’s Demo Day.