Measuring Impact in Entrepreneurship Education

A guide for Primary School Teachers (Ages 9–12 and 12 to 16+)

As a teacher, you are used to measuring what progress your students make. Impact-driven entrepreneurs are used to measuring what difference they make in society. In the IDEEC project, we bring this together. We present you a set of simple tools to measure what difference the project makes – for your students, yourself as a teacher and the community around you.

Download the Impact Guides

Download English Guide Download Dutch Guide Download Italian Guide Download Spanish Guide

Impact Timeline

Impact Questionnaire

Here you find a list of questions for an impact questionnaire for students. You can adapt these to your needs.

Questionnaire English Questionnaire Dutch Questionnaire Italian Questionnaire Spanish

Teacher Self-evaluation

Here you find a link to a self-evaluation questionnaire you can use as a teacher.

Teacher Self-evaluation

What does “Impact” Mean?

In simple terms, impact is the positive change your lesson creates in how students think, feel, or act. Think of your teaching like planting a seed – what new ideas or behaviors start growing? What excitement or pride blooms afterwards? For example, are students more excited about solving a problem or helping others after your activity?

How to Notice and Measure Impact

You’re likely already observing impact in small ways – kids’ eyes lighting up, energetic participation, or new questions they ask.

Here are child-friendly, “light-touch” tools you can use to capture those changes:

“Two Likes and a Wish”: After a lesson, each student shares two things they liked or learned, and one thing they wish could be different next time. E.g.: “I liked learning about recycling. I liked working with my friend. I wish we had more time to build our project.”
Smiley-Face Surveys: Use emojis or thumbs-up/down to ask if they had fun, learned something new, worked well in teams, or felt helpful.
Quick Physical Check-ins: Try a playful prompt like “Put your hand on your head if you felt proud of yourself today!” Nearly all hands on heads means the lesson made them feel proud – and yes, even that is a sign of impact.

Why does Impact Matter?

At ages 9–12, children are forming their sense of self and how learning connects to the real world. Simple impact measures help them reflect on their growth and see learning as more than grades. For instance, asking what problem they tackled or who it helped, makes them connect schoolwork with real-life issues. This builds self-awareness and motivation, helps them feel part of something bigger, and shows that their ideas can make a difference beyond the classroom.

The Impact Driven Entrepreneurship Education project provides ready-made check-in ideas:

Stage	Key Questions	Tool / Activity	Outcome
Before	Where are we now? Content: What change do we want to see in the world? Competences: What competences do we want to develop?	Option 1 content: Class activity where you draw / describe the imagined future Option 2 content: individual statements or keywords shown in a web / wordle, using tool such as mentimeter Option 3 competences: let students fill in survey	Establish baseline competencies and best imagined future as goals.
Challenge Framing	What challenges matter most to us?	Option 1: Draw the challenge chosen – in group(s) Option 2: Describe and frame the challenge chosen in max 1/2 sentences – make sure you can explain every word	Identify and frame meaningful challenges.
Solutions Experimenting	How can we address the challenge creatively?	Option 1: Record students’ prototypes (and their reflections on it) Option 2: Let teams draw their iterative process, including feedback loops	Show what is developed and how this is done
Impact Making	What difference did we make? Did we also change (learn/grow)?	Option 1: competence survey (linking to similar survey before project) Option 2: competence survey (stand-alone) Option 3: Group statements or drawings on change that was made (link back to activity before)	Measure learning outcomes and societal impact
Sharing the change we made	How can we share the change we made with wider community?	Option 1: Real world action log (online) Option 2: Class “change walls” / shared school or community exhibitions of the impactful projects and work of the class	Empower: sharing how to make a difference

How to Measure change

The most reliable way to know if a difference has been made, is to use a before and after test – a pre and post survey. This allows you to track what has changed for your learners.

We have developed a simple, copiable impact survey can be found here. you can plug this into lessons, so measuring impact becomes a natural, easy part of your teaching process.

What about impact for me, the teacher?

It is also important to see your own change. This is why we have developed self-reflection tool for you the teacher here or here (this one downloads a copy for you to use).

We have developed a simple, copiable impact survey can be found here. you can plug this into lessons, so measuring impact becomes a natural, easy part of your teaching process.

Find out more about the fundamental principles

circular image of the impact-makers process for entrepreneurship education

Go to the toolbox, to find the activities for each of the competencies

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