Towards a Pedagogy of Internships

This paper responds to the relatively scant literature on effective learning practices in one area of applied learning: internships. This dearth of literature is striking given the growing body of research and knowledge in such applied learning contexts as undergraduate research, study away experiences, community-based research, and service-learning. The authors describe an emerging pedagogy of academic internships that frames essential components of effective learning practices for this form of experiential education. The article explores two broad pedagogical questions: What can be learned in an academic internship? And, what principles and theories foster that learning? Domains and dimensions of learning are broadly considered and the theories and principles that comprise what the authors refer to as “pedagogical cornerstones” of effective learning in academic internships are explored. Select, hallmark formats of effective learning practices are described.