Patience, Productivity, & Positive Attitudes:
Benefits and Frustrations of Internships 

Alice Christie and Graduate Students: Lynn Castiglione, Sarah Doyle, RaeAnn Fox, Miguel Herrera, Todd Kisicki, Erika Ringstrom, and Jan Wolfgramm

Presentation Description: This session focuses on:

• building leadership and capacity of teachers through graduate internships;benefits and challenges of internships in constructivist classrooms; and
• lessons learned by participating graduate students.

Keywords: graduate education, intership, modeling, learning           

Abstract:           

The concept of scaffolded instruction has grown out of research on how individuals learn (Vygotsky, 1978). The Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) is "the distance between the actual developmental level ... and the level of potential development ... under adult guidance or in collaboration with more able peers" (Vygotsky, 1978, p. 86). Such collaboration or scaffolding enables learners to participate in complex tasks that they cannot perform adequately without assistance (Moll, 1990).

With this in mind, a university professor invited graduate students who have completed the two educational technology classes she teaches each summer to serve as interns in these classes the following summer. This mentoring project facilitated learning for graduate students enrolled in a graduate program at a metropolitan university in the southwest. The course goals included learning to effectively use the Internet and a number of multimedia tools in K-12 classrooms. The final projects included the creation of classroom Web sites including a WebQuest and electronic portfolios that showcased graduate students’ skills and abilities to integrate multimedia into the teaching and learning that occurred in their classrooms.

These graduate interns needed training in two key areas before they were comfortable serving as mentors to practicing teachers. First, they needed training and extensive and varied experiences using technology and multimedia tools. This technology training needed to include both formal instruction and time to experiment with the tools, use the tools to complete assignments, make mistakes, and problem solve. They also needed training in ways to scaffold learning for the graduate students.

The internship experience of mentoring more novice graduate students provided a win-win-win situation. All stakeholders benefited from this project: graduate mentors, graduate students being mentored, and the university ptofessor. Each is summarized below.

After serving as mentors to less-experienced graduate students, these graduate mentors:

• increased their self-confidence
• felt valued for their expertise and willingness to help
• developed skills and strategies for working with and facing the challenges of working with other adults
• strengthened the skills they had acquired the previous summer
• deepened their understanding of technology integration
• deepened bonds among themselves that encouraged collaboration during the internship and throughout the remainder of their program
• deepened their understanding of the reflection process• stayed current with emerging technologies
• learned the importance of collaboration and becoming a member of a learning community
• developed teaching strategies that they could use in their own classrooms
• served as role models to other teachers that asking for help is not cause for embarrassment, but an opportunity for growth
• honed their trouble-shooting skills

Graduate students enrolled in intensive summer courses felt their individual needs were met despite the large class size, received help when and as they considered necessary, experienced a mentoring model, and experienced the ZPD and the joy of learning from a “more experience peers.”

Finally, the university professor received assistance with popular, over-enrolled graduate classes, could accommodate a variety of learning styles, offered improved quality of learning and improved the classroom environment, offered a constructivist classroom featuring personalized and contextualized learning, and had the opportunity to use and study a mentoring model at the graduate level.                           

Content includes lessons learned about graduate education internships including lessons on:

• developing skills and strategies for working with adults
• learning personal strengths and weaknesses
• dealing with difficult students
• learning from students they are mentoring
• deepening understanding of content
• increasing self-confidence
• strengthening skills acquired the previous summer
• deepening understanding of technology integration
• deepening bonds among themselves that encouraged collaboration during the internship and throughout the remainder of their program
• deepening their understanding of the reflection process
• staying current with emerging technologies
• learning the importance of collaboration and becoming a member of a learning community
• developing teaching strategies that they could use in their own classrooms