Two-factor analysis of internship experiences of participants in a vocational education leadership development program

Although it is generally agreed that internship experiences are positive, there is little research evidence to substantiate this belief. The purpose of this study was to determine what an intern considers important by identifying motivational and maintenance factors which affects his behavior, and then to establish any differences that may exist among the various groups of subcategories in a population of interns. The subjects for this study were doctoral students participating in a vocational education leadership development program established under the Education Professions Development Act (EPDA), Part F, Section 552. Under this program, graduate fellowships were made available at eleven institutions of higher education in 1970, and at seven additional institutions in 1971. A system for providing internship experiences was a major requirement for institutional eligibility. The procedure utilized for this study was similar to the techniques developed by Frederick Herzberg for a study of workers in industry. Basically, each eligible intern was asked to describe a time when he felt exceptionally good about the internship, and then to describe a time when he felt exceptionally bad about the internship. These "critical incidents" were collected through the use of an open-ended questionnaire. Of the 268 participants who were serving or had served and internship, 194 returned usable questionnaires. The responses were subjected to content analysis and the significant types of factors in favorable incidents and in unfavorable incidents were identified