Learning From Internships in Gerontology and Geriatrics: Assessment and Program Evaluation

Abstract

Internships are an essential component of gerontological education. Harvesting the learning from internships, however, requires careful attention to assessing an intern's work. In addition to providing feedback to students, internship assessment can also yield data useful for academic program evaluation. Drawing on internship assessment data collected from undergraduate and graduate gerontology interns and their community preceptors over a period of seven semesters, this article explores (1) concerns regarding how to assess what interns are learning, (2) ways to provide students with additional opportunities for learning from their internships, and (3) how information from these student-learning outcomes may be used to evaluate the effectiveness of the overall academic program.

KEYWORDS:

• practicum
• community based learning
• experiential learning
• program evaluation

An earlier version of this article was presented at the 34th Annual Meeting and Educational Leadership Conference of the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education (AGHE), February 23, 2008.