Chapter 2: A Review of the Literature: Internships and Best Practices

Are internships worth doing? What can they add to students’ education and to a political science degree? What does research teach us about effective practices? To answer these essential questions and others, this review of the research literature takes a panoramic look at published work on academic internships and delves into political science scholarship specifically. While this chapter does not center exclusively on studies specific to the discipline, it provides a larger context for understanding the pedagogical value of internships and explores the evidence-based instructional practices that can help students achieve various experiential learning outcomes.