Table of Contents

SectionPage #

Introduction……………………………………………………………………………….2

Discerning the Context……………………………………………………………………3

Building a Solid Base of Support…………………………………………………………4

Identifying and Prioritizing Program Ideas……………………………………………….5

Developing Objectives……………………………………………………………………9

Devising Transfer of Learning…………………………………………………………...10

Designing Instruction…………………………………………………………………….11

Formulating Evaluations…………………………………………………………………13

Making Recommendations………………………………………………………………15

Format of Internship Program…………………………………………………………....16

Identifying Programming Staff…………………………………………………………..17

Budgets and Marketing…………………………………………………………………..18

Facilities………………………………………………………………………………….20

Appendices:

Appendix A: Caffarella’s Interactive Model of Program Planning……………...22

Appendix B: Needs Assessment…………………………………………………23

Appendix C: Faculty Survey……………………………………………………..29

Appendix D: Student Survey…………………………………………………….30

Appendix E: List of Graduate Programs with Internship Components………….31

Appendix F: Internship Learning Agreement……………………………………32

Appendix G: Possible Internship Sites for HALE Master’s Program…………...35

Appendix H: Sample Brochure…………………………………………………..36

Introduction

The HALE master's program prepares individuals for entry-level leadership positions in postsecondary education, public agencies, and business settings. The program provides a broad understanding of educational systems from social, historical, cross-national, normative perspectives and an understanding of central issues in postsecondary teaching and learning, and a theoretical understanding of administration and leadership connected to practice. There are opportunities to develop and use skills needed in practice through practica and field experiences. We expect that graduates are prepared to work in and to cultivate educational environments that are receptive to diversity.

The above is the mission statement for the Higher, Adult, and Lifelong Education Masters program. The latter part of the mission statement emphasizes that graduates from the program will be prepared to work in and cultivate educational environments that are receptive to diversity. Moreover, an essential part of the learning experience and professional preparation should include practica and field experiences. In practice, however, does the HALE Masters program encourage students to utilize these experiential learning opportunities? If not, what changes could be implemented to the HALE program? One solution is to develop a quality internship program for HALE students.

In the Spring of 2003, the EAD 877 Program Planning and Evaluation class was asked to develop a proposal for an internship program for the HALE Masters program. The proposal for an internship program, resulting from the collaborative effort of the members of the class, is presented in this report. The report, like the planning of the internship program itself, is organized following the steps of the Interactive Model of Program Planning, as described by Rosemary Caffarella in Planning Programs for Adult Learners.

The twelve sections of this report correspond to the twelve steps of the Interactive Model of Program Planning provided by Caffarella(see Appendix A). For each of the twelve steps, we explain the activities included in that step and how we carried them out in the process of planning the HALE internship program.. Finally, we conclude this report with several appendices that include a detailed description of our needs assessment, faculty and student surveys, an internship learning agreement, and a list of sites that have already expressed an interest in placing a HALE intern.

Discerning the Context

Context is defined as the human, organizational, and environmental factors involved with decision making in regards to program planning and evaluation (Caffarella2002). The HALE internship program prepares individuals for entry-level leadership positions in postsecondary education, public agencies, and business settings. The internship program provides a broad understanding of educational systems from social, historical, cross-national, normative perspectives and an understanding of administration and leadership connected to practice.

This internship program creates opportunities for students to develop and use skills needed in practice through field experiences. The objective of the HALE internship program is to provide students with additional or new work experiences in adult educational settings. This program also provides students with additional experiences and qualifications to further enhance portfolios.

The overall goal of the internship program is to provide students with an opportunity for individual change and growth. The program will also assist the HALE Masters students in establishing additional contacts within the community, creating possible job opportunities for graduating students and allowing for community outreach. Finally, an additional goal would be to develop positive relationships between the University and placement sites in the Lansing area and beyond. The internship program provides a unique opportunity for students in the HALE masters program to build their educational experience to better reflect their professional goals and to enhance their personal and professional portfolio.

Building a Solid Base of Support

Caffarella identifies building a solid base of support as an integral step in planning a program (2002). Support should come from people and organizations, including potential and current learners, supervisors of potential participants, mid-and senior-level management of the sponsoring organization, and other stakeholders who have a vested interest in the planning or results of the program. The two factors important to building organizational support include the position of the educational function within the organization and the culture of the organization.

Our initial focus was to ascertain and secure the willingness of students, faculty, and site supervisors to participate in the proposed internship program. We also considered the learning objectives and goals of student participants in formulating the program in order to entice them to participate; thus prolonging the life of our program.

We acquired support for the internship program through a needs assessment(see Appendix B for details regarding the needs assessment). We surveyed potential learners (current HALE Master’s students) and management from the organization (faculty) regarding their willingness to participate in the proposed program and their goals for the internship program, not only to help develop the parameters of the program but to assure potential participants that their considerations were taken seriously. We also interviewed another stakeholder, Dr. Pat Enos, the director of the Student Affairs Administration practicum program, because the mission of HALE’s program may overlap with that of the Student Affairs’ program, as well as compete for positions in administrative offices. Finally, we collected a list of potential supervisors in educational programs within and outside of the university who expressed interest in having a HALE intern.

The mission of the HALE program, and the Department of Educational Administration, includes the goal of providing opportunities for students to put theory and skills into action in practice. Our program’s goals links their mission to the greater organization in which the program will operate.

The culture of the Educational Administration department and the HALE program are supportive of experiential learning experiences for students. An internship option already exists within the curriculum; our program is simply a more formal organization of this option. The proposed internship program will become a stronger symbol of the culture’s support of putting theory into practice. The HALE internship program will accomplish this by being a more formal, consistent program offering that illustrates the emphasis placed on giving students professional opportunities.

Identifying and Prioritizing Program Ideas

According to Caffarella identifying the relevant ideas and needs for the program content is one of the most important tasks of the people involved in program planning. Program ideas may come from such diverse sources as personal observations, people, responsibilities and tasks of adult life, organizations, and communities and society. They may be based on hunches or highly structured needs assessment (2002). In our process of planning for this internship, the idea was generated and presented to the group by Dr. Gloria Kielbaso, our instructor, who assigned the program idea to us. Also, the idea came from the organization of the Educational Administration department, specifically the faculty of HALE. They had discussed this idea as a faculty previously, which prompted Dr. Kielbaso to bring it to us.

As a group we went through an informal educational need: a gap between what presently is and what should be. According to Caffarella, in such case, an individual, an organization, or the community recognizes a gap in knowledge and skills (2002). The group agreed with Dr. Kielbaso that there needs to be an experiential learning component to the HALE program so that students gain relevant experience in their field of interest. This is also in line with the mission on HALE program which states that “The HALE master's program prepares individuals for entry-level leadership positions in postsecondary education, public agencies, and business settings. We expect that graduates are prepared to work in and to cultivate educational environments that are receptive to diversity.”

An important step in generating ideas is through a needs assessment. In this case we used a paper and computer survey to obtain feedback from students and a paper survey to receive feedback from faculty regarding particular program characteristics (see Appendix B for details regarding the needs assessment). We also considered the ideas presented in the group session of the faculty meeting.According to Caffarella, one of the most important outcomes of a highly structured needs assessment may be a commitment by those involved in the process to ensure that the ideas from the needs assessment are actually used in the program planning process (2002). This is demonstrated by the group’s analysis of the survey given out to the faculty and staff and the utilization of this data when developing the internship program. Caffarella mentions that ensuring the use of data for planning means making sure at the outset that those who have the authority to implement the findings of such assessment are willing to listen to the voices of those who respond, and that they will actually implement programs based on these findings (2002). In this regard not only did we take into consideration the findings from the student survey but we also considered the ideas presented in the group session of the faculty meeting.

Further, Caffarella states that priority ideas are often thought of as ones that are among the most important and/or the most feasible to address. Depending on the specific planning situation, however, other factors are considered, such as the number of people affected and availability of resources (2002). Our internship program might be considered priority because there is an educational need for one. Our program strives to produce professional administrators, but does not offer a structured professional experience.

Three major factors, alone or in combination are, are used to make judgments about whether an education or training program should be developed or an alternative intervention chosen: people, organizational and environmental factors and cost (2002). Our group struggled with whether there are any alternatives to gaining professional experience as part of the HALE program other than the internship, and we looked at other options, such as field training through the course EAD 894. It was decided, however, that the program needs a separate internship component which is highly structured and has visibility in the offices where potential interns would like to work. In this process, as Caffarella mentions, we took the advice of several people, including Dr. Kielbaso and Regina Smith as content experts and, through their responses on the student survey, current HALE students who are potential participants.

Caffarella also charts “Two Major Categories of Criteria with Examples and Descriptions” (2002). As mentioned above, the importance and feasibility criteria take into consideration organizational and environmental factors and cost. Those persons affected include faculty, students, and internship supervisors. Strong contributions to individuals’ knowledge include professional skills and experience. The contribution to organizational objectives is strong because the internship program better enables the department to produce professional graduates. We have already collected a list of potential supervisors in educational programs within and outside of the university who are willing to have a HALE intern in their office. We will use faculty already in place to supervise the student reflection. We have made it very easy to respond to the need because we limited costs and need for new staff and have collected some internship locations already. We did not complete a formal chart weighing priorities, but discussed as a committee the importance and feasibility of each suggestion from students and faculty, as well as examples from other universities.

Overall, in identifying and selecting ideas we used a systematic approach to planning which was mostly done through in-class, group discussions. The group is aware, however, that in implementing program ideas, a well developed “master plan” (2002) is necessary and we are looking at the internship through multiple lenses, keeping in mind the context of the target population in which we are working.

Developing Objectives

To begin, it is useful to define the difference between program objectives and goals. According to Caffarella “objectives are clear statements of the anticipated results to be achieved through an educational and training program”. She further states that “they serve as the foundation for instructional plans, transfer of learning, and evaluations” (Caffarella, 2002). Goals, on the other hand, “are typically broad statements of purpose or intent for the program” (Caffarella, 2002).

Both program objectives and goals are similar in that they are measurable and non-measurable. They may also result in unanticipated outcomes and must be flexible enough to change over time. The program objectives and goals written for the HALE internship program reflect the needs assessment done with HALE faculty and students earlier this semester, and support the mission statement.

The program objectives for the HALE internship program are:

  1. To provide HALE Masters students with additional or new work experiences in adult educational settings.
  2. To provide HALE Masters students with additional opportunities and professional qualifications for their portfolio.

The program goals for the HALE internship program are:

1.To provide HALE Masters students with an opportunity for individual change

and growth.

  1. To assist the HALE Masters program in establishing community contacts for future endeavors, job opportunities for graduating students, and community outreach opportunities.
  2. To develop additional, positive relationships between the University and the educational community locally and beyond.

It is our belief that a HALE internship program will benefit the HALE faculty and students, as well as the University and the educational community. The internship can foster individual, organizational, and community change by offering experiential learning and outreach.

Devising Transfer of Learning

Transfer of learning has often been neglected. Caffarella states that “transfer of learning was believed to magically happen” (2002). Now, however, organizations demand to see results after spending money on training. We believe it is essential to develop an Internship plan to help participants apply what they have learned. Caffarella quotes Ottoson who observed, “application requires multiple kinds of knowledge, including knowledge of the thing, the context, the practical and the skill to put it all together” (2002). For this reason we believe the program design, framework and strategies for transfer of learning are paramount. We can look at this in three stages: before, during and after the program.

Tasks to develop Transfer of Learning before the internship experience could include:

1. Students will complete a memo of understanding with the internship on-site supervisor outlining learning goals and objective for the experience.

  1. Faculty would have input on objective and goals, offering suggestions and tasks analysis.
  2. Together with a faculty member, students would assess the appropriateness of the placement site based on their individual learning goals for the internship. In addition, choosing an appropriate site will enhance the student’s opportunities to apply knowledge and skills developed in the curriculum.

Tasks to develop Transfer of Learning during the internship experience could include:

  1. The faculty supervisor or internship coordinator can ensure that students are gaining valuable experience and meeting learning objectives by monitoring the site.
  2. The internship program should include a written reflection component, such as a journal, portfolio, or final reflection paper. Reflection helps the student to understand and internalize what has been learned.

Tasks to develop Transfer of Learning after the internship experience could include:

  1. Evaluation will play a key role in transfer of learning, through student and supervisor reflections, surveys, and other forms of feedback.
  2. The internship site itself should be evaluated to determine whether interns should be placed there in the future.

Designing Instructional Plans

According to Caffarella, preparing instructional plans involves designing the interaction between learners and instructors and/or learners and resource materials (2002). The internship experience is aimed at providing onsite learning to the interns and our group agreed that interaction between the interns and their supervisor (instructor) is an important part of the experience. Since ‘cultivating educational environments’ is an important part of the HALE mission statement, it was agreed that the interns should be fully empowered to define and lead their own learning such that the learner and the faculty in charge are co-creators in developing the instructional plan.

Caffarella alludes to the concept of learning objectives, along with the terms performance objectives or learning targets, as being important in the development of instructional plan (2002). The learning objectives are described as what participants will learn as a result of their experience. Since the main focus of the internship is to provide students with field experience in their areas of interest, the learning objectives should be aligned with providing the students with “an understanding of central issues in postsecondary teaching and learning, and a theoretical understanding of administration and leadership connected to practice” as stated in the HALE mission statement. Thus, the learning objectives are set in the context of the program objectives that focus on participant learning, so that there is continuity between the two sets of objectives.