Experiential Learning Pedagogy as a Catalyst for Entrepreneurial Alertness

This study investigates how experiential learning enhances entrepreneurial alertness, a cognitive capability to identify and evaluate business opportunities among Indonesian undergraduate business students. Using a mixed-methods longitudinal design over eighteen months, data were collected from 218 students through validated surveys, interviews, learning journals, and artifact analysis. Results reveal that students exposed to a redesigned experiential curriculum, incorporating market immersion, stakeholder feedback, venture prototyping, and reflection, demonstrated significantly higher alertness across three dimensions: scanning, association, and evaluation. The intervention also boosted opportunity recognition self-efficacy and venture creation confidence, with effects sustained at six-month follow-up. Qualitative data illustrated emotional shifts, identity transformation, and the role of productive failure in alertness development. This study contributes theoretically by clarifying how experiential pedagogies shape cognitive development and practically by offering a scalable curriculum model for entrepreneurship educators. From a pedagogical perspective, the findings reinforce the importance of learner-centered, experience-driven approaches, where knowledge is constructed through action, reflection, and social interaction. The integration of authentic learning activities aligns with constructivist and transformative learning theories, emphasizing that entrepreneurial competencies are cultivated through practice rather than transmitted through instruction. Accordingly, the study highlights that effective entrepreneurship pedagogy should prioritize structured experiential design to foster critical thinking, adaptive learning, and the formation of entrepreneurial identity.