Edinburgh Napier University

  What does it mean to teach innovation and entrepreneurship in professional degrees? The professions such as accountancy and law traditionally provide specialised knowledge and advice. As technology makes the professional’s knowledge more accessible, professions need to innovate. This chapter outlines the use of an innovation challenge to teach students about innovation and entrepreneurship combining academic theory with practical experience of conceptualizing an innovative service (the challenge) for law firms and pitching to a panel of professionals. For the Final Year Batchelor of Law students and lecturer, the encounter with working professionals raised a range of concerns. How would the students engage with the challenge and cope with the experience of direct immediate feedback on their idea and work?

Drawing on student self-reflection and feedback of the professional panel and observers, this chapter highlights how failing and dealing with practical challenges as a lecturer and co-creating the course can enrich the experience of lecturer and student. It contributes to academic practice by illustrating how stretching the existing paradigms of pedagogic tradition can enable students to develop skills in a safe, supportive environment in which constructive critical challenges are accepted and valued.