Engaged Learning in the Academy—Challenges and Possibilities

Advocates of engaged learning in higher education through programs such as internships, cooperative education, and service-learning make strong claims for its value to students, colleges, and communities. But many mainstream academics either ignore or reject those claims, favoring more conventional forms of curriculum and teaching. Drawing on ethnographies of scores of student-interns and many years of professional practice, Moore tackles the controversy over whether first-hand experience is a legitimate and effective source of learning. He identifies both the pitfalls and the possibilities in engaged pedagogies and suggests conditions under which they might work best.