Abstract
Students training for clinical careers must acquire skills for teaching clients, their families, and fellow professionals. Guidelines for training programs in Communication Sciences and Disorders (Speech-Language Pathology), however, do not currently include standards for pedagogy. The aim of this study was to measure changes in undergraduate students' perceptions of teaching and learning following an Instructional Internship experience, where they served as teaching assistants for foundational knowledge courses in the major. Using a qualitative research design, we coded 31 participants' statements from pre- and post-internship essays and identified major themes and sub-themes. Our results indicate that by participating in a teaching experience, students develop a deeper appreciation for the relationships between classroom pedagogy, their own learning, and clinical practice. While this study focuses on a pedagogical experience for undergraduate students in a Communication Sciences and Disorders program, the principles and results are generalizable to other professions that train students to provide clinical and educational services.Keywords: teaching assistants, instructional interns, mentoring, doctoral shortage, undergraduates
Highlights
In December of 2002, the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Joint Ad Hoc Committee on the Shortage of PhD Students and Faculty in Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSD) released their report identifying a major shortage of doctoral-trained faculty in CSD programs (ASHA, 2002)
The 2002 ASHA Initiative to increase interest in academic careers was the impetus for developing our Instructional Internship program
The instructional internship is a unique opportunity for undergraduate students to get a glimpse of what it is like to work in academia
Summary
In December of 2002, the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Joint Ad Hoc Committee on the Shortage of PhD Students and Faculty in Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSD) released their report identifying a major shortage of doctoral-trained faculty in CSD programs (ASHA, 2002). The committee's recommendations included: 1) revising the undergraduate curriculum to increase rigor and exposure to academic careers, and 2) balancing the research and clinical curricula so that students at all levels of professional preparation receive greater exposure to research experiences. These recommendations address a key challenge: students who pursue a Ph.D. are likely to enter a program which does not systematically build upon their undergraduate and graduate learning experiences, especially if those previous experiences occurred at a comprehensive university.
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