4th Edition, May 1999

As a graduate student in the Program for Gifted/Creative Education you are preparing for a variety of roles including, but not limited to, becoming a college or university professor, classroom teacher, coordinator of school system programs, or consultant in a State Department of Education. Practica/internships are designed to provide you with real-life experiences in applying the theoretical and practical-knowledge you have gained through your coursework. This handbook provides you with the information you need to develop your practicum or internship.

Schedule

Practicum and internship credits may be scheduled each semester of the academic year and in the summer as appropriate and as available.

Requirements

The practicum (EPSY 8710) is completed at the master's and educational specialist levels.

The internship (EPSY 9710) is completed at the doctoral level.

• A minimum of six semester hours of EPSY 8710 credit is required to be included in your program of study at the master's level.
  
  
• A minimum of six semester hours of EPSY 9710 credit is required to be included in your program of study at the doctoral level.
  
  
• A minimum of three semester hours of EPSY 8710 credit is required to be included in your program of study at the educational specialist level.
  
  

Levels

In consultation with the Practicum and Internship Supervisor, your practicum or internship activities will be categorized according to one of the following levels to be determined by your background, experiences, degree objective and/or career goal:

Level One (Entry): At this level, it is assumed that you have limited or no research/teaching/administrative/outreach experiences.

Level Two (Intermediate): At this level, it is assumed that you have had some research/teaching/administrative/outreach experiences, but not at an advanced level.

Level Three (Advanced): At this level, it is assumed that you are ready to engage in original research/teaching/administrative/outreach experiences.

Competencies

A successful practicum or internship should demonstrate your ability to apply your knowledge and understanding of the

1. origins and nature of high levels of intelligence and creativity and how such levels can be recognized, nurtured, and challenged in gifted learners from diverse backgrounds; and
   
   
2. cognitive, social, emotional, and intuitive characteristics and needs of gifted learners from diverse backgrounds.
   
   

I. Your activities and/or projects may focus in one or a combination of the following three areas

• Instruction: working directly with gifted learners or preparing others to work with these learners. (Examples: complete a teaching project in a public/private school setting; provide instruction or staff development to parents, administrators, community leaders, policy makers; complete a series of lectures in college/ university classes; develop and present an instructional unit in the Challenge Program).
  
  
• Administration: program development or program evaluation. (Examples: design training materials Ð print or cd-rom for business leaders, curriculum directors, counselors; develop training materials to facilitate a school's formative and summative evaluation of its gifted program; designing training materials Ð print and/or cd-rom for parents of certain aged children, i.e. preschool, middle school; designing training materials on identification, curriculum for use by schools and other organizations, etc.).
  
  
• Outreach: local, state, national, international service-oriented projects. (Examples: Working with parents to develop a parent organization for gifted students; working with the State Department to plan conferences, develop research base for pending or desired legislation, developing training materials and other information for dissemination across the state; working with organizations like the Junior League, Kiwannis Club, local businesses to assist them in integrating concerns for gifted children into their programs; developing a network with gifted centers around the world; working with Centers and other organizations that have national and international missions, i.e. the Carter Center, Embassies in Atlanta; a pediatrician's office.
  
  

II. Your practicum or internship project must include a research component and be summarized in an appropriate publication format. The purpose of the research component is to have you gather and interpret effectiveness data on the design and/or presentation of your instructional, administrative, or outreach project activity. The purpose of the publication is to have you present, in some suitable form, findings from your instructional, administrative, or outreach project or activity for dissemination to an appropriate audience.

Objectives

To complete requirements and demonstrate your competence, you should, in consultation with the Practicum and Internship Supervisor and your advisor as appropriate, design your practicum or internship project using the following objectives as a guide. These objectives may be referred to, singularly or in combination.

• To design and implement a comprehensive assessment program to recognize the advanced level of intellectual, creative, artistic, or kinesthetic abilities that cause students from diverse age, cultural and economic backgrounds to be classified as gifted learners.
  
  
• To design and implement environments wherein gifted students can use their strengths, risk new areas of thought and action, interrelate with their peers, and feel challenged to continue their personal and interpersonal development.
  
  
• To design and implement a flexible and individualized, differentiated curriculum appropriate to meet the needs of gifted learners that is appropriate to their ages, backgrounds, experiences, interests, and values.
  
  
• To design and implement consultation, collaboration, or professional services in gifted and creative education for teachers, administrations, and parents; with presentations and professional services at professional meetings or conferences related to gifted and creative education at the local, state, national or international level.
  
  
• To design and implement evaluation plans to assess the effectiveness of assessment procedures, program design and administration, curricula, counseling activities, consultations, or presentations.
  
  

Documenting your Experiences

• A contract developed in consultation with your Practicum and Internship Supervisor that describes the project(s) and activities you will complete to satisfy your practicum or internship requirements. (See Appendix A for a format for developing your contract.)
  
  
• Logs describing your progress toward completing your practicum or internship project. This log should be kept up-to-date and submitted to your Practicum and Internship Supervisor once a month. (See Appendix B for a format for your practicum/ internship log.)
  
  
• A portfolio that includes a complete description of the project(s) or activities you completed to satisfy your practicum or internship requirement. (See Appendix C for the outline to be followed in completing your practicum or internship portfolio.)
  
  
• At least one publication related to your practicum or internship that has been designed to convey information about gifted and creative education to an appropriate audience. The nature of your publication should correspond to your degree objective and must be approved by your Practicum and Internship Supervisor. (See Appendix D for examples of publication formats.)

Location for Your Practicum or Internship

You may complete your practicum or internship experience in an appropriate and approved setting. Such settings include the Torrance Center for Creative Studies; the Georgia Department of Education; a Georgia public or private school; a business or other educational setting, e.g., the Carter Center. Other settings are certainly possible. However, the setting must be approved as a suitable site prior to initiating your practicum or internship activity or project.

Evaluation

Practicum and internship projects and activities are evaluated on an S/U basis as follows:

An "S" demonstrates that overall you have demonstrated, thoroughly and accurately, strategies and methods for applying theories, generalizations, concepts, and facts to the appropriate education of gifted children from diverse backgrounds.

A "U" indicates that you have not demonstrated, thoroughly and accurately, strategies and methods for applying theories, generalizations, concepts, and facts, as they are related to the appropriate education of gifted children from diverse backgrounds.

(See Appendix E for a sample of items to be included on the evaluation form that will be used to assign an "S" or "U" grade for your practicum or internship. Given the varied nature of the practica and internships, some adjustments will need to be made to items such as these to accommodate your specific project or activity.

NAME:______________________________________________________________

Title:________________________________________________________________

Objective:

Description:

¹Reproduce this form as needed to allow appropriate space to describe your practicum or internship project(s) and/or activity(ies).

When submitting your contract, identify it as a Practicum or Internship submission based on your degree objective by placing a check mark in the blank space.

The original copy of your approve contract will be filed in your student folder; a copy will be returned to you.

Approved by:________________________________________ Date____________

Title: ________________________________________________________________

Objective(s):

Description:

Approved by:________________________________________ Date____________

Title: ________________________________________________________________

Objective(s):

Description:

Approved by:________________________________________ Date____________

Title: ________________________________________________________________

Objective(s):

Description:

Approved by:________________________________________ Date____________

Title: ________________________________________________________________

Objective(s):

Description:

Approved by:________________________________________ Date____________

Title: ________________________________________________________________

Objective(s):

Description:

Approved by:________________________________________ Date____________

Name_______________________________________________ Week of___________________

²Reproduce this form as needed to allow yourself appropriate space to record your activities. Be sure to place a check in the appropriate blank to indicate whether this is a report on practicum or internship activities. Be sure to retain a copy of each log submitted for your records even though a photocopy of the log, with any comments or suggestions by the supervisor, will be returned to you.
³It is not absolutely necessary that you record something in your log for each day. You may indicate that an activity or event took place over several days.
⁴Describe the activity of event with sufficient statements to convey a clear picture.
⁵Please include comments that describe problems, successes, self-evaluation of progress, strategies or steps taken to address any difficulty or challenge, or any assistance you may need from your supervisor to resolve a difficulty or challenge or to make modifications in your activities.

"A carefully conceived portfolio can significantly advance an educator's professional growth. It can also ensure that evidence of exemplary professional activities do not vanish without a trace."
[Source: K. Wolf (March 1996). Developing an effective teaching portfolio. Educational Leadership.]

The portfolio that you develop as documentation of your practicum or internship experience represents a comprehensive record of your professional accomplishments in the internship or practicum part of your program of study. The purposes of the portfolio are to

• provide your Practicum and Internship Supervisor with the information and evidence necessary to judge the quality of your preparation to assume the role for which you are preparing, and to
  
  
• provide you with a structure for on-going self-reflections of your purposes in pursuing a degree in gifted and creative education, determining your need or desire for further study in an area(s)where you want to establish expertise, and discovering areas where growth has occurred and where further improvements are needed.

The following outline should be used to develop your portfolio:

1. A statement of your short- and long-term professional goals
2. A statement describing your research project or activity.
3. A statement describing your instructional project or activity.
4. A statement describing your administrative project or activity.
5. A statement describing your outreach project or activity.
6. Area(s), if any, in which you would like to develop additional expertise (This information will be shared with your advisor or other faculty as appropriate and according to your wishes).
7. Appendices:
   1. Copies of your contracts
   2. Copies of any letters (solicited or unsolicited) or other records of commendation (e.g., evaluation reports, awards) received as a result of your practicum or internship project or activity.

Publishing your ideas, results of your research, descriptions of your instructional activities, etc. are an important part of your preparation for a professional role in gifted and creative education. Publications may take many forms. The following list, approximately arranged according to levels, is designed to provide you with ideas from which you might select a suitable format for your publication. This list is not intended to be exhaustive. You should work with your Supervisor to develop an appropriate format for your publication .

Level I:

• An annotated bibliography in a selected area (e.g., tests, checklists, rating scales, articles on a particular topic, recent books in gifted and creative education).
• A resource paper on an area of interest to parents, teachers, or administrators; various categories of gifted learners; books for gifted learners; career options for gifted learners.
• A collection of activities or games for gifted learners at a certain age or for dealing with a particular problem.
• An annotated report on findings from recent dissertations on a specific topic.

Level II:

• A model content area or counseling unit to illustrate principles of differentiated curriculum or strategies to meet the social-emotional needs of gifted learners.
• An administrative design for developing and scheduling gifted program services in an elementary, middle or high school.
• An introductory monograph (a book, article, or paper written about a single subject) (e.g., identifying gifted learners; principles of program planning or curriculum development; an informational manual for administrators, counselors, parents, gifted students, or classroom teachers).
• An article that can be submitted for publication in a practitioner journal or in a state organization's newsletter for gifted educators.

Level III:

• A training model for teacher education or for gifted students.
• An article reporting on results from a research study to be submitted for publication in a scholarly journal.
• An article/book review (in collaboration with a faculty member) for publication in a professional journal.
• An evaluation model for some aspect of gifted program services.
• Standards for developing gifted program services in a school system.
• A review of the psychometric properties of tests and other measures to be used in the identification of gifted learners.
• A theory-based or policy-based position paper or monograph on an issue affecting the education of gifted learners.

1. Practicum or Internship projects/activities will be evaluated at the mid-semester (formative) and at the end of the semester (summative).
   
   
2. Evaluations will be conducted by the Practicum/Internship Supervisor and the On-Site Coordinator, as appropriate.
   
   
3. Evaluations will be done on a 5 point scale with 5 being the highest as follows:
   
   "1" = Work/Performance is totally inadequate/unacceptable.
   "2" = Work/Performance is unacceptable, but shows some promise.
   "3" = Work/Performance is minimally acceptable.
   "4" = Work/Performance exceeds minimum expectations.
   "5" = Work/Performance is outstanding, well beyond minimum expectations.
   
   
4. Items such as the following will be used to evaluate the work/performance of a practicum or internship student. Adjustments (e.g., additions or modifications) will be made as is appropriate to fit the design and content of the practicum or internship.
   
   KNOWLEDGE: Student is knowledgeable of current theory and practice in the field.
   
   APPLICATION: Student is adept at translating theory into practice.
   
   QUALITY OF WORK: Student demonstrates a level of scholarship that is appropriate to his/her degree objective (e.g., MEd, MA, EdS, EdD, or PhD).
   
   INITIATIVENESS: Student demonstrates an appropriate level of independence and self-directedness.
   
   INVENTIVENESS: Student demonstrates the ability to develop and modify strategies or approaches to achieve optimal results on a task or project.
   
   PROMPTNESS: Student completes tasks on time and with appropriate attention to detail.
   
   INTERPERSONAL SKILLS: Student demonstrates his/her ability to interact effectively with different audiences.
   
   PROFESSIONALISM: In dress, speech, and manner, student presents him/herself as a professional and conducts tasks or performs in a way that befits the situation.