How do internships and work experience, such as volunteering, give students a taste of the environment in which they hope to be employed? How do they provide pathways between educational institutions and the workplace? This paper reports on a qualitative research study about the initial professional learning experiences of individuals newly…

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…

Objective: The National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission Report suggests introducing an internship period for all newly qualified dental/oral health practitioners in Australia. This study gauged the opinions of undergraduates from three dental schools in Australia. Methods: An online survey collected demographic information on gender and…

Higher education is facing new challenges in preparing students for the workforce. As demands increase for students to differentiate themselves when seeking employment, it becomes necessary for higher education and vocational providers not only to understand these challenges, but also to provide a pathway for students to develop the skills…

Professional experience is a field increasingly defined by institutionally prescribed practices and outcomes. However, for the pre-service teacher, at an individual level, it is commonly navigated through complex and diverse experiences that for them may defy coherence. What is publicly shared is filtered frequently through a pre-service teacher's…

This study investigated veterinary students' experiences of clinic-based learning (CBL) during a comprehensive final year internship programme. Open-ended surveys (n = 93) were used to gather qualitative data about students' conceptions of what is learned during CBL and their approaches to learning in clinics. Phenomenography was used for detailed…

Higher education programs need to prepare their graduates for the practical challenges they can expect to face upon entering the workforce. Students can be better prepared if their academic learning is reinforced through authentic workplace experience, where the link between theory and professional practice can be realized. Increasingly, such…

Over the last two decades, the notion of teacher leadership has emerged as a key concept in both the teaching and leadership literature. While researchers have not reached consensus regarding a definition, there has been some agreement that teacher leadership can operate at both a formal and informal level in schools and that it includes…

This research review reports on articles presenting empirical research in the area of how teacher-training institutions work on preparing future teachers for the integration of information and communication technologies (ICT) in their future classrooms. It was conducted mainly in English and French and covers research in 11 OECD-countries during…

Grant (1994) and Holt (2001) deemed it necessary to provide international teaching experiences to assist in a teacher's preparation program with the overall goal of becoming globally educated. Therefore, the purpose of this qualitative study was to describe four student teachers' experiences related to completing an international student teaching…

Assessment is a significant issue for learning in the workplace. In some professions there are key indicators of success shared by workplace and academic supervisors alike. Beyond specific professions, however, assessment becomes more diffuse in workplaces that do not have explicit criteria established to judge performance of students in…

This paper discusses the role of praxis in peace education at the university level. An internship program is described as an example of how a program that integrates theory and practice might be implemented within a university context. Analysis of the program points to the potential of practical programs for maximizing student learning but also…

Assessing student perceptions and opinions of their university education is now standard in quality assurance processes for learning and teaching. In Australia, the Course Experience Questionnaire (CEQ) has been institutionalised as a national survey of graduand opinion and is used as the key indicator of tertiary teaching quality. A little-used…

The Institute of Educational Administration (IEA) at Geelong, Victoria, Australia, is briefly described. Participants in IEA programs undertake a five-stage process: courses in educational administration; a four-week residential program; a fermentation exercise; advanced residential program; and an innovative project in their respective schools.…

A study of adult learners in a teacher-training internship program used concerns-based and critical reflection models to demonstrate that people become reflective when current actions become inappropriate, a supportive environment for acknowledging and addressing stress is created, and thinking is challenged. (SK)