The report of the National Commission on Excellence in Educational Administration recommended that educational administration preparation programs be planned around five strands--including supervised practice consisting of short- and long-term internships directed by research faculty and practitioners who are clinical faculty members. This idea is not new. However, recent research suggests that without conceptual foundations for developing internship programs, internships may fail from lack of articulation and definition. This paper proposes an internship model anchored in adult learning and development theory and often termed "androgogy." After reviewing the literature and discussing alternative instructional approaches for adults, the paper describes a theoretical framework based on six andragogical assumptions: the need to know, the learner's self-concept, the role of the learner's experience, readiness to learn, a life-centered learning orientation, and internal motivation for learning. The paper briefly describes the traditional internship and proposes a new internship model designed to integrate the formal knowledge of administration preparation programs with field experiences through a developmental process encouraging learner involvement and reflection. This model is defined by three distinct levels of structured activity (reactive, interactive, and active), each increasing in degree of student participation. The model assumes that schools will become full partners in administrative preparation. Use of adult learning principles may enhance the theory-research-practice relationship as coursework relevancy and applicability are related to practice. Included are 15 references. (MLH)