Content and Context of the Administrative Internship: How Mentoring and Sustained Activities Impact Preparation

As universities prepare educational leaders for twenty-first century schools, the quality and authenticity of the internship experience require both the strengths of university faculty and the expertise of practitioners to create authentic experiences that seek to bridge the theory-to-practice divide. One mechanism to achieve this is through quality mentorship by school- and central-office-based personnel during the internship experience. A central aspect of this professional relationship is the ability for the mentor to provide access to quality activities that will prepare the aspiring leader for his/her first administrative position. This exploratory study examined language utilized by interns in their time logs as well as information gleaned from preliminary surveys of both interns and mentors upon completion of their experience. Findings revealed the complexity of language analysis and revealed a need for understanding activities of interns and interactions with mentors in a contextual fashion.     

数学教育实习中指导教师工作现状分析

中学指导教师在数学教育实习中扮演着重要的角色。调查发现,绝大部分实习生在教育实习的过程中获得了中学指导教师对他们的指导。指导的内容集中在课堂教学设计和教学技能方面。大部分实习生都认可指导教师的工作。在实习中大多数指导教师没有获得如何从事指导工作的培训机会及取得相关工作的资质;他们与高等教育机构联系甚少;指导实习生的过程中存在单打独斗的问题。     

Cross-cultural experience in preservice teacher education

The study investigated the effect of international student teaching experience on the professional and personal development of preservice teachers. Within the framework of their internship program, 26 graduate students in a private university in Turkey had a two-month internship in a mid western state in the United States, the main component of which was a six-week student teaching experience in high schools. Student teachers worked with mentors in pairs or triads in six high schools in different subject areas. They got involved in teaching practices, technology seminars, and diverse cultural activities during their internship. The student teachers and mentor teachers were surveyed through e-mail and three student teachers were interviewed to evaluate the outcomes of the program. The findings of the current research suggest that the international student teaching experience and the overall internship program with its cultural components contributed in a positive way to student teachers’ professional and personal development and helped student teachers increase their cultural awareness. The findings also suggest that the presence of international students in US schools and society in general helped American students and people have a better idea of other countries and cultures.     

Internship: interpreting micropolitical contexts

Many university faculties of education across Australia employ a model of internship for final semester pre-service teacher education students to help them make a smooth transition into the teaching profession. While a growing body of research has explored pre-service teachers’ experiences of their practicum, including the internship, which is the final professional experience within a course of study, very little work has considered micropolitics as a lens through which to interpret interns’ relationships with their school supervisors/mentors. This paper uses a micropolitical framework to interpret reflective reports written by 145 Bachelor of Education (primary) interns who recorded their perceptions of their professional learning experience within the context of a relationship with their school-based mentors. Several key themes are identified that highlight interns’ reports of a range of micropolitical strategies at play. The paper concludes by raising a number of implications for universities and schools regarding how better to facilitate interns’ transition into the profession.     

Teaching-as-research internships: a model for the development of future chemistry faculty and the improvement of teaching in science,technology, engineering,and math

Over the past decade, the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison) and Madison Area Technical College (Madison College) partnered to create an internship pathway for graduate students pursuing careers as future science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) faculty members. Since 2003, 10 doctoral students from the university completed teaching internship appointments with the technical college chemistry department. Interns benefited from a variety of teaching and educational experiences that helped lay the foundations for their future teaching careers. Following completion of their internships, many students secured employment in higher education as new instructors and enthusiastic members of the teaching profession. Intern projects also benefited veteran faculty mentors at Madison College, and the experience provided a rich forum for collaboration that generated curricular and instructional innovations in the classroom. Centered on the three pillars of teaching-as-research, learning community, and learning through diversity, the internship program created at UW-Madison and implemented at Madison College provides a model pathway for preparing future STEM faculty. This approach provides clear benefits not only for the future faculty who are trained, but also for veteran faculty mentors, for the host institution, and for the undergraduate students impacted by the educational innovations. This paper examines the key attributes of this program, with the hope that our experience may be disseminated and replicated to benefit others.     

Project-based learning in an internship program: A qualitative study of related roles and their motivational attributes

The roles of task, learner, and mentor in a successful project-based instructional technology (IT) internship program were studied in light of contemporary motivation theories. Interns in four different locations were asked to apply their academic experiences in constructing real projects at work under the supervision of their site mentors and academic advisor. Data included tape-recorded intern interviews, status-review notes, e-portfolios, mentor interviews, and mentor evaluations. Data were collected over 6 semesters, from 18 different cases, 4 of which are highlighted here. The study considered the roles of task, learner, and mentors as they are needed to make the most of project-based internship programs. Implications for the design and development of internship and capstone programs, and specifically successful student performance in internship programs, are considered.     

Teachers “in the making”: Building accounts of teaching

In this paper, mentoring practices during internship in teacher education are identified as boundary activities between schools and universities. By using the notions of common places and accounting practices, the emerging discourses of student teachers and mentors in a Norwegian school are explored to expand our understanding of how conceptual, practical and contextual resources are used to construct justified accounts of experiences. The results of this study indicate that during internship the student teachers learn ways of seeing, representing and talking about their experiences that are deemed relevant within the school's practice, using and transforming resources accordingly.     

Professional Identity Development of Teacher Candidates Participating in an Informal Science Education Internship: A focus on drawings as evidence

This study investigated the professional identity development of teacher candidates participating in an informal afterschool science internship in a formal science teacher preparation programme. We used a qualitative research methodology. Data were collected from the teacher candidates, their informal internship mentors, and the researchers. The data were analysed through an identity development theoretical framework, informed by participants’ mental models of science teaching and learning. We learned that the experience in an afterschool informal internship encouraged the teacher candidates to see themselves, and to be seen by others, as enacting key recommendations by science education standards documents, including exhibiting: positive attitudes, sensitivity to diversity, and increasing confidence in facilitating hands‐on science participation, inquiry, and collaborative work. Our study provided evidence that the infusion of an informal science education internship in a formal science teacher education programme influenced positively participants’ professional identity development as science teachers.     

Mentoring beginning primary teachers for exemplary teaching practices

In exploring the potential for mentoring to support novice teachers’ use of effective teaching practices, we conducted a grounded theory analysis about change potential. Themes emerging from cross-case analysis of survey, interview, and observation data from six beginning primary teachers in the US and their mentors revealed factors, other than type of mentoring programme, that related to beginning teachers’ success in improving classroom practices. More effective beginning teachers’ mentors had more experience as mentors and were more effective teachers than other mentors. More effective beginning teachers communicated more with mentors, more accurately self-reported use of effective teaching practices, and were more open to mentoring.     

“Somebody to count on”: Mentor/intern relationships in a beginning teacher internship program

The purpose of this qualitative interview study was to illuminate mentor and intern participants' relationships in one state-mandated beginning teacher internship program. We analyzed interview data from 29 mentors and interns using within- and cross-case analysis and generated categories and properties with supporting interview excerpts to show how mentors and interns interpreted and adapted their roles. Findings of the study indicate that mentors and interns jointly construct their relationships; these relationships are undergirded by the respect and trust the two individuals have for each other. Furthermore, interns appear to need mentors who first, and foremost, support them as fledgling teachers. Interns also need mentors who assume flexible roles and who adapt their roles based on interns' needs.     

An Innovative Near-Peer Mentoring Model for Undergraduate and Secondary Students: STEM Focus

This study examined a novel mentoring model, near-peer mentorship, that supports the development of mentee and mentor, incorporates established principles of mentoring, and offers unique opportunities to integrate research and teaching in a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) internship. Using qualitative methods, this model was examined from the perspectives of near-peer mentors and student mentees during a science education internship at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. Results revealed that this mentorship model contributed to personal, educational, and professional growth for near-peer mentors and increased the interest and engagement of students studying STEM. We discuss implications, limitations, and future directions.     

Who dares to disconnect in the age of uncertainty? Teachers’ recesses and ‘off‐the‐clock’ work

In 1999, all student teachers at secondary I level at the University of Bern who had to undertake an internship were asked to participate in a study on learning processes during practicum: 150 students and their mentors in three types of practicum participated—introductory practicum (after the first half‐year of studies), intermediate practicum (after two years of studies) and final practicum (after three years of studies). At the end of the practicum, student teachers and mentors completed questionnaires on preparing, teaching and post‐processing lessons. All student teachers, additionally, rated their professional skills and aspects of personality (attitudes towards pupils, self‐assuredness and well‐being) before and after the practicum. Forty‐six student teachers wrote daily semi‐structured diaries about essential learning situations during their practicum.

Results indicate that in each practicum students improved significantly in preparing, conducting and post‐processing lessons. The mentors rated these changes as being greater than did the student teachers. From the perspective of the student teachers their general teaching skills also improved, and their attitudes toward pupils became more open. Furthermore, during practicum their self‐esteem and subjective well‐being increased. Diary data confirmed that there are no differences between different levels of practicum in terms of learning outcomes, but give some first insight into different ways of learning during internship.     

Borders to cross: Identifying sources of tension in mentor–intern relationships

We used border crossing as a theoretical framework to explore the tensions that developed between two mentor–intern pairs during the course of a yearlong internship in high schools in the United States. Interviews with mentors and interns, and observations of planning sessions, teaching episodes, and follow-up conferences indicated that differing conceptions of mentoring, expectations related to communication, and beliefs about teaching formed the primary borders that the pairs had to navigate. Findings from the study suggest that the university must take a greater role in fostering communication between mentors and interns, and in providing on-going support to mentors engaged in teacher education.     

Mentorship and mitigation of culture shock: foreign‐trained pharmacists in Canada

Immigrants with professional qualifications face unique challenges in adapting personally and professionally to new environments. This ‘double culture shock’ experience may result in disengagement from the professional community due to perceived barriers to integration, with subsequent negative impact on employment prospects and professional role identification. The role of mentors in facilitating professional engagement by foreign‐trained pharmacists within the pharmacy profession has not previously been described in detail. This qualitative study examined the different mentoring strategies used by mentors and foreign‐trained pharmacists negotiating the licensure process in Canada. Using a categorization scheme described previously by major researchers, activity logs of mentors and mentees were examined and coded based on use of mentoring strategies. Focus groups and interviews were also undertaken with separate groups of mentors and mentees to discuss the use of these mentoring strategies for foreign‐trained pharmacists. Results suggest pharmacist‐mentors relied most heavily upon situative‐apprenticeship and humanistic perspectives in their mentoring relationships, and infrequently used critical‐constructivist mentoring activities or techniques. While mentees reported a high level of satisfaction with their mentors and the mentoring experience, they also expressed a desire for more activities of a critical‐constructivist nature as a way of assisting them in mitigating the double culture shock they experience during the licensure process.     

Internships as Commencement: Mathematics and Science Research Experiences as Catalysts for Preservice Teacher Professional Development

Among the initiatives of the Maryland Collaborative for Teacher Preparation (MCTP) is a summer research internship program that places preservice middle grades teachers in extended collaboration with professional mathematicians, scientists, and educators engaged in research and curriculum development activities. We describe the MCTP internship program including the rationale for and structural features of the program. We also highlight the effects of the internship experience on preservice teachers' conceptions of and beliefs about the nature and processes of mathematics and science, and the teaching of mathematics and science. Our findings suggest that the internship experience is a fundamentally significant life experience for preservice teachers. Furthermore, internships have the potential for realizing reform in mathematics and science education; that is, preservice teachers who have participated in MCTP internships intend to bring a holistic, conceptually oriented view of mathematics and science to their classrooms. The paper concludes with a summary of ongoing programmatic and logistical challenges of the MCTP internship program. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Near-peer Mentor Model: Synergy within Mentoring

The near-peer mentor model provides undergraduates and recent post-baccalaureates in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields with an internship in two related disciplines, STEM research and STEM education. The near-peer mentor is both a mentored research intern and a mentor to pre-college students. During the 2013 summer, 43 near-peer mentors from seven sites reported on the benefits, challenges, and personal development they experienced during the internship. In addition, 1,328 pre-college students reported their perceptions of near-peer mentors. In this qualitative study, we indicate that learning by being mentored, while simultaneously acquiring the abilities to mentor and teach, is an effective model for promoting career advancement and the psychosocial support associated with the acquisition of professional behaviors.     

What a difference mentoring makes: service learning and engagement for college students

Colleges are increasingly interested in ways to better engage students in their academic careers. This article reports 20 college students' experiences as mentors for at‐risk fourth‐graders through a mentoring program called The Learning Connection (TLC), run by the Community Services Office at Moravian College. The study describes students' voluntary participation in service learning activities as a source of student engagement, the characteristics of the TLC mentoring program, the process by which student mentors reported their experiences over the course of the academic year, and the benefits of the mentoring program through the eyes of the college student mentors. At the beginning of the mentoring experience, mentors reported that the primary reasons for mentoring were to make a difference in a child's life and supplement classroom learning. At the end of the academic year, mentors reported that mentoring taught them important lessons about children, themselves, community work and the value of mentoring. Mentor feedback supports mentoring, specifically, and service learning, generally, as a source of student engagement for college students.     

The impact of compensation,supervision and work design on internship efficacy: implications for educators,employers and prospective interns

Internships are a growing, yet controversial, labour market phenomenon. In particular, the issue of unpaid internships has been the source of legislative, judicial and ethical debate. Some have criticised colleges and universities for promoting an expansion of internships for undergraduate students – with little regard for internship characteristics such as compensation, quality of supervision and work activities. Meanwhile, there is a paucity of research examining the role internship characteristics, such as compensation, supervisor behaviours and work design have on internship efficacy. Based on a survey of undergraduate students in the US, the results showed that supervisor mentoring, the developmental value of the internship and the job pursuit intentions of the intern with the host employer were lower for those reporting on their unpaid internship vs. paid internship. Meanwhile, supervisor support and supervisor mentoring are significant predictors of internship efficacy regardless of internship compensation, while work design has much less of an impact on internship efficacy. The implications of the findings for educators, employers and prospective interns are highlighted.     

Outcome Assessment of Mentorship Program

This paper reports results of a survey that studied the outcomes of a mentorship program. Students enrolled in a core course for the MA and certificate in gerontology programs were required to select either a long-term care service, a program in aging, or an agency providing services for senior adults, where they could spend a day interacting with a mentor. A wide range of sites were available and students could select one site for 8 hours or two sites for 4 hours each. The researchers were interested in assessing both the opinions of the students who participated and of the mentors themselves about this educational experience. A survey that had a series of open-ended and close-ended questions was administered to all graduate students who participated as well as to the mentors at their various sites. This paper discusses the implications of this program as a model for other gerontology programs. It delineates mentor and student suggestions about the strengths and weaknesses of the current set-up of the mentorship program. Suggestions are made for further study of this pedagogical tool.     

The working contract between the on‐site mentor and school counseling students during internship—contents and processes

This study focuses on the working contract between the on‐site mentor and school‐based counseling interns within the specific context of the on‐site mentoring role, underlining the importance of the contract as a framework for empowering internship and mentoring. Guidelines concerning the main contents and processes needed for outlining an effective contract are presented. A study that examined expectations of mentors and interns regarding the components of the contract is presented with the aim of illustrating the creation of a data‐driven basis for contracting. Four similar broad categories were located, although differences between mentors and interns in each category appeared. Implications of the working contract for the enhancement of the mentorship relationship and for the professional growth of mentors and interns are discussed.