The Teaching Internship Scheme at UWA

In semester one, 2000, The University of Western Australia commenced a Teaching Internship Scheme for doctoral candidates in the university. The aim of the scheme is to enhance the future employment prospects of the interns and to assist in attracting and retaining outstanding students at UWA. The scheme reflects the University's goals in supporting high quality teaching and learning and fostering the nexus between teaching and research. The scheme provides funding for the interns to develop teaching skills in their field and to undertake a program of professional development activities related to teaching and learning. The funding is for one year and generally the internship is held in the early stages of the intern's doctoral candidature.

In this first year, the University's Teaching and Learning Committee fully funded nine interns and partially funded another three. There was a pool of 33 highly qualified applicants. (The initial plan for the scheme was for 7 interns in the first year). As part of the professional development activities the interns attended the Foundations of University Teaching and Learning course in first semester. They also undertook a program of teaching duties that exposed them to both large group and small group teaching. In the second semester of the internship, the interns will have an individualised program including a project and developmental activities as determined in consultation with their department and the academic developer coordinating the development part of the scheme. The project will focus on an aspect of teaching and learning as it relates to their teaching experience during the internship.

This presentation describes the Teaching Internship Scheme and the activities in which the Interns are participating and provides some preliminary feedback provided by the participants and coordinators.