Internships
The nature of an Internship
The internship is conceived as a bridge between the ending of preservice professional preparation and the first year of teaching. It is a time when the intern, or Associate Teacher, gains knowledge and experience in all facets of the role of the teacher in the school and prepares as thoroughly as possible for their first year of teaching. It is intended that the Associate Teacher will become involved in as many aspects of school life as possible and all duties associated with being a teacher in a school, including committee work, planning and programming and resource planning and development.
The internship provides an intensive period of in- school experience that effectively inducts beginning teachers into the nature, structure and organisation of schools and the work roles and responsibilities of teachers in schools.
Interns (Associate Teachers)
In the Master of Teaching program the interns are Associate Teachers who have satisfied all requirements for graduation with a teaching qualification (the BTeach) and are conditionally certified to teach. Candidates can choose to exit the program prior to the internship and seek employment with a Bachelor of Teaching qualification. The internship is part of the final phase of the course which enables candidates to graduate with a masters-level qualification (MTeach), rather than a baccalaureate (BTeach).
Through the Internship agreement with the NSW Department of Education and Training and the NSW Teachers Federation (and as originally approved also by the ASIS, the CEC and the Independent Education Union) , interns are 'conditionally certified to teach' and are able to be left on their own to take responsibility for groups of students. All MTeach interns would have been eligible for a provisional casual teaching number with the NSW DET if they had elected to take out the BTeach and not continue their enrolment into the MTeach internship.
An Intern, therefore, is like a new teacher who is being mentored by an experienced teacher in their first term of teaching after graduation. While still a student of the University, an intern is unlike a practice teaching student who has not yet completed a teaching qualification. As Interns are 'conditionally certified to teach' they are able to be left in charge of a class and are expected to assume the normal roles and responsibilities of a teacher for those classes that they are assigned to teach.
Intern requirements
The intern/associate teacher is required to:
- attend the school on a full-time basis for the period of the internship i.e. during normal school hours, 5 days a week for the period of the internship (which is usually 9 weeks, unless varied by prior arrangement by the university)
- undertake a teaching load that is between 50% and 60% of a normal teaching load (taken as 28 x 40-minute periods per week)
- participate in all normal aspects of the professional role of a teacher whilst at the internship e.g. teaching, planning lessons, staff meetings, school events, playground and sports supervision (in association with the mentor teacher)
- undertake an Action Research project which focuses on their own professional practice
Mentor teachers
Because the interns are conditionally certified to teach, the main role of the teacher to whom they are assigned in the school is that of a professional mentor assisting an inexperienced graduand to enter the profession. The report that the mentor teacher will write at the end of the internship is like that which would be written by a school principal or faculty head after a new teacher's first term of teaching.
Because an intern will have a teaching load comprising 50 - 60% of a normal load, which is taken from the mentor teacher's load, the mentor will be released from a considerable portion of their workload during the term, and thus have the opportunity to engage in their own professional development.
Internship Handbook
Full information on the Internship is contained in the Internship Handbook.
2007 Internship Handbook
International Internship Letter and Form
Please download the international Internship Letter and Form if you are planning to undertake internship overseas. Please note that these only apply to those students in the Master of Teaching and Bachelor of Education Combined Degree programs.