Scientific Khyber ISSN:1017-3471 (2014)Volume 4(2):PP 61-65 RESEARCH ARTICLE 61 The Role of Educational Content and Teaching-Learning Methods in Improvement of Entrepreneurship Spirit among Agricultural Students of Tabriz University Farhad Lashgarara*, Hossein Nouri and S.Jamal Farajallah Hosseini Department of Agricultural Extension, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran *Corresponding author Abstract: This research was conducted in order to investigate the role of educational content and teaching-learning methods in improvement of entrepreneurship spirit among agriculture students of Tabriz University. The statistical population consists of all 1200 agriculture students of university of Tabriz which 291 students were selected by Morgan table with proportional stratified sampling method as sample. The results showed that entrepreneurship spirit of the most of the students (%54.6) is high. Also, the stepwise regression indicated that educational content explained %13 of the entrepreneurship spirits improvement. Keywords: Educational content, teaching-learning methods, entrepreneurship spirit, agriculture students, Tabriz 1. Introduction Entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship activities is one of the factors that could change economic, social and industrial status of a country .In the world competitive markets only entrepreneurs could survive in international economic and social scopes (Sharifzadeh & Zamani, 2005). So, a society acts as pioneer in the modern competitive scope that possesses dynamic and creative graduates. Entrepreneurship has gained attention of the educational systems since late twentieth century. It is a process of creation of something new and acceptance of risks and benefits. In other words, entrepreneurship is creation of new and valuable thing by allocating time and effort and considering financial, mental and social risks and personal and financial satisfaction and independence (Tavakkoli et al, 2008). Education of entrepreneurship could be one of the effective styles for facilitation of entering graduates into the work market. The researches in European countries have shown that such educations could have trained individuals with high responsible taking with entrepreneurship spirits that they could challenge on economic issues successfully. As a result, rate of unemployment and failure in businesses has been reduced (Saeidi& Mahtadi, 2008). Moghimi and Ahmadpour Daryani (2008) investigated the educational needs of the small business owners in entrepreneurship scope and concluded that comprehensive educational plans are required due to gap between current status and optimal conditions of educational components for instructing of entrepreneurship spirits and skills. Hosseini Lorgani et al (2008) believed that academic collaboration with developed countries educational and research centers could be a valuable solution for entrepreneurship spirits and employment of the graduates of higher education. Ghasemi et al (2008) in their paper “ investigation of the effective factors in establishing entrepreneurship spirits of students of Agriculture Complementary Studies Campus and Natural Resources of University of Tehran concluded that there is a positive and significant relationship among variables of age, psychological factors, educational and academic factors with entrepreneurship spirit in students. Noorzadeh and Rezaei (2010) in their paper “Effective motivators and preventers of entrepreneurship spirit from the perspectives of agriculture scientific and applied high reduction centers students” concluded that students, professors and equipments of scientific and applied higher education centers are the important preventers of entrepreneurship spirits in the students of these centers. Rasheed (2000) concluded that the individuals participated in entrepreneurship courses obtained high scores in achievement motivation, inner control center, self esteem and creativity. Rasmussen & Sorheim (2006) in a study on “Entrepreneurship applied education” concluded that the necessary factor for entrepreneurship behaviors is training of entrepreneurship skills in educational centers like universities.