Abstract
In recognition of the need to better prepare doctoral candidates with teaching and learning competencies, we devised an innovative internship program in the form of a structured apprenticeship and trialed it in public health higher education. The paid internship was comprised of: (i) Mentoring from an experienced educator, (ii) Structured program of education in pedagogy and curriculum design, and (iii) Opportunities for applied experience. Eleven interns completed the apprenticeship in its first 2 years. The mixed method evaluation assessed the impact of the internship on knowledge, skills, and confidence of interns throughout the internship, and included a cost-consequence analysis. Data collection included surveys and face-to-face interviews with interns and mentors. Changes in intern knowledge and skills were analyzed by intern self-ratings pre- and post-internship on 11 performance descriptors. All interns indicated improvement in at least one area of teaching. Interviews indicated general satisfaction, however raised incompatibilities between the unstructured nature of mentoring and intern expectations and preferences. The economic analysis calculated a cost-offset associated with intern-delivered teaching activities of $58,820 (AUD, 2019). The total cost of the program was calculated to be $70,561 (comprising mentor investment AUD$20,436, intern investment AUD$15,126, scholarship “top-up” payment of $5,000 paid to each of the 7 interns AUD $35,000). This Internship is associated with positive impacts for interns across a range of domains at a net total investment of $11,741.
Highlights
The primary objective of doctoral training programs is the development of researchers; developing the craft of teaching is secondary and something that is hoped will come in due time [1]
Some interns assessed themselves as having an improvement of 1-point on more than half of the applicable descriptors (2018/2, 2018/3, 2019/1) whereas other interns felt they had a more marked improvement of 2-points in fewer areas (2019/2 in two descriptors related to assessment and 2019/3 in two descriptors related to teaching identity/philosophy)
Previous studies assessed the impact of an internship program for PhD students only from a career decision marking point of view [23] or in terms of confidence [6]
Summary
The primary objective of doctoral training programs is the development of researchers; developing the craft of teaching is secondary and something that is hoped will come in due time [1]. It is clear that most new faculty members will be involved in teaching to some extent [4] and it is reasonable that a doctoral student have some formal training in pedagogy [5]. There are, some initiatives to train doctoral students to teach in academia such as the Preparing Future Faculty initiative (PPF) by the Council of Graduate Schools, USA [8]. Under the PPF initiative, North Carolina State University provided teaching and research mentorships, placements, and professional development seminars to sociology doctoral students [9]. A similar program at the University of Maryland’s School of Public Health conducted a series of seminars on teaching for doctoral students and noted that 90% of their alumni felt empowered and confident to teach in academia [10]. The current paper describes the evaluation of a model pedagogy-preparation program in public health education run at the University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia
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