Internships in Kinesiology: Reconsidering Best Practices

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to summarize the 2018 American Kinesiology Association preworkshop on best practices in internships. This preworkshop contained 2 keynote speakers, 5 ignite sessions, and 6 round-table discussions looking at the status of internships in departments of kinesiology, nationally. It is clear that kinesiology does not have a common practice for implementing internships. Given the many variables in respect to offering an internship, such as curricular mandates, faculty workload policy, community partner availability, program outcomes, student learning objectives, and assessment tools, this is not surprising. Perhaps we should rethink the notion that there is a set of best practices that guide internship development and consider the possibility that internships will look different at various institutions for valid reasons.