Internships/Clinicals/Student Teaching

Internships/Clinicals/Student Teaching

Mary Huntley, College of Allied Health and Nursing

"REAL WORLD" WORK EXPERIENCE

Internships, practicals, clinical practice experiences, and student teaching are common ways in which students experience the real world of work prior to degree completion and graduation. These experiences provide the opportunity for students to apply academic skills to the work environment and to demonstrate readiness for a position in the discipline of focus.

In some disciplines, students may have "real world" work experiences throughout the major, whereas in others, the experience is at the end of the program. For the purposes of assessment of learning outcomes, the focus of this method is on the use of "real world" work experience which is a culminating activity prior to graduation. It is the opportunity for students to demonstrate synthesis of what they have learned during their academic program. The synthesis of learning is applied to a work situation which is intended to simulate as closely as possible the position the student may be seeking upon graduation.

A common model is for students to earn credit for their experience, but not a salary. However, students may or may not be paid a salary during the work experience or students may or may not earn credit for the work experience. Assessments are typically completed by three parties: the student, the faculty, and the preceptor. Specific tools need to be developed to gather the assessment data from each designated person.

"Real world" work experiences may be selected by the student or the faculty. Typically, the faculty uses a screening process and provides the final approval of the experience as it needs to match the outcomes of the course and comply with any contractual agreements which need to be in place for the academic and work-site partnership to be workable. A specified number of hours is typically required for this experience.

ADVANTAGES OF INTERNSHIPS/CLINICALS/STUDENT TEACHING USE

• This methods provides opportunity for assessing such skills and dispositions as group work, team-building skills, professionalism, contructive participation, work environment adaptability and problem solving, project completion, trustworthiness, self-confidence, and reliability.
• It can be a very affirming culminating experience providing opportunities for demonstrating the integration and synthesis of knowledge with work experience.
• Students are able to enhance their resumes.
• Feedback from people in the work force validates/invalidates academic experiences and student-held misconceptions.
• Many benefits can be derived from academic partnerships with people in the work force. One is that there becomes a mutual exchange of information with students learning from preceptors and preceptors learning from students.

DISADVANTAGES OF INTERNSHIPS/CLINICALS/STUDENT TEACHING USE

• Contacts with community agencies are time-consuming, including the establishment and maintenance of work experience agreements.
• Developing evaluation tools for the three parties involved in the assessment is hard work.
• Creating incentives for preceptors to participate is often challenging when budgets are limited.
• Communication with students and preceptors during internships may be challenging.
• Onsite visists with students and preceptors requires efficient scheduling, access to a vehicle and travel time, or conference-call phone sessions.

SUGGESTIONS

• The credentials of the preceptor need to be reviewed and the faculty member needs to spend some time with the preceptor to review beginning and ongoing expectations and course outcomes. Some programs require attendance for preceptor training.
• Develop an instrument by asking alumni to list observable behaviors corresponding to the course objectives/outcomes. Ask another group of alumni and preceptors to rate the behaviors as being appropriate data on which to base achievement. Evaluation tool is then based on items for which there is congruent agreement. (Palomba & Banta, 1999, p. 225).
• Use of weekly journals is another format by which to know the student's assessment of progress and change toward growth in learning. This may be a tool to foster self-reflection.
• Papers specific to themes which are important to the "real world" experience may be requested. Typically, program goals and expected outcomes are addressed as well.
• Evaluation forms may be developed and used. Such tools may be performance based and focused on specific skills, use of research, critical thinking, ethical reasoning, collaboration, and resource issues as well as providing satisfaction data related to such areas as support, amount of work required, compatibility of work to academic expectations, growth in learning, and including suggestions for improvement (Palomba & Banta, 1999, p. 227).
• Establishing guidelines for internship experiences is very beneficial. Within those guidelines responsibilities need to be specified for the intern, the program, and the external agency.

RESOURCES

Palomba, C. A. & Banta, T. W. (1999). Assessment essentials: Planning, implementing, and improving assessment in higher education.. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Sundre, Donna, Associate Assessment Specialist, James Madison University, Center for Assessment and Research Studies, Harrisonburg, VA 22807. sundredl@jmu.edu. Presenter at Assessment Conference in Denver 1999, "Qualities of Effective Internships".

Areas at MSU,M which include "real world" work related experiences as part of the academic program. (For example, experiential education, teaching majors, social work, dental hygiene, communication disorders, nursing, dietetics, recreation and parks, health science, mass communications, psychology, urban studies, business)