Importance of teaching experience for internship

[Klaus_Heisler]

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[WisNeuro]

I don't think it's looked at as heavily in internship applications. I do, however, think that teaching experience has been huge for me in helping to hone some aspects of being a good supervisor. Learning how to convey ideas to others is an important skill. If you don't have any teaching experience, I'd recommend it for overall professional development, but I don't think the lack of it will negatively impact your internship application all that much. If anything, it will hurt you down the road when it comes to job applications at certain places. If the job has expectations for supervision and delivering of didactics, 0 teaching experience won't look that stellar.

 

[Justanothergrad]

I wish more emphasis was placed on teaching and the communication of ideas since it relates so closely to supervision, and very little is done to develop formal skills on how to conduct supervision (in part because so much is missing from that literature). None of the less, I don't know anyone who was ever asked about teaching during internship interviews.

 

[AcronymAllergy]

Agreed--it's worthwhile for a variety of reasons, including the development of teaching skills, which (as has been mentioned) can be useful in a variety of non-academic settings.

At least IMO, it also helps a person's application look more well-rounded. There aren't always many opportunities to be an instructor of record for a course (and to potentially get faculty feedback and support while doing so), so I would suggest jumping on it while it's available.

But for internship specifically, I don't think an absence of teaching experience would be significantly detrimental at many/most sites.

 

[Pragma]

Agreed with others - great experience to get and opens up more opportunities down the road for you (e.g., adjuncting, or even some academic positions). It won't matter for internship but it is great for skill development and your CV.

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

Agreed with all of the above. Teaching helps a student develop complementary skills that are useful in supervision, administrative duties, and other non-pt facing responsibilities.

 

[deleted760483]

I have a year of teaching experience which was indicated on my CV and while I can't say for sure how much it was weighed overall, I can't remember a single interviewer asking me about it even though it was fairly relevant to some of the responsibilities for positions I applied to (i.e. providing group psychoeducation).

 

[President_LeslieKnope]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. It's easy to forget that there is more to grad school than internship match lol.

I ended up taking the plunge after reading these posts and talking to other colleagues. Thanks again, Intro psych here I come!

Good for you! I forced myself to teach intro psych as well even though I am not planning on going into academia and can really echo what everyone has said here. I learned so much from teaching that course and continue to use those skills today. I'm really glad I did it, even though it was very stressful for me at the time!

 

[AcronymAllergy]

As an added bonus--I've heard it said quite a few times that there aren't many better ways to prep for the EPPP than teaching Intro Psych.

I never taught it myself, but could certainly see why folks feel that way.

 

[eremitestar]

I've heard it said quite a few times that there aren't many better ways to prep for the EPPP than teaching Intro Psych.

This was absolutely my experience. It was a great refresher for all those names and theories I don't use much in my clinical work!