Programs Overview
The teacher education program at Penn GSE is developed on the premise that preparation for teaching builds on a rich undergraduate arts and sciences education. Our goals in teacher education are to prepare students to become reflective, collaborative, visionary teacher leaders, especially in urban settings.
Our teacher education graduates leave inspired to use the power of teaching to deepen student learning, transform schools, and increase educational equity. Coursework and supervised student teaching experiences mutually inform one another; course assignments are integrated with fieldwork experiences so that students learn to think deeply and reflectively about their practice in the classroom.
The flagship programs in teacher education are the full time, ten-month, master of science in education degree programs in elementary and secondary education. All other programs—PennGSE’s program for Teach for America corps members, the undergraduate urban education minor, and submatriculation as an undergraduate into the master’s degree programs— share the foundational core of the master’s degree programs. All programs seek to reciprocally base knowledge of pedagogy on deep understanding of theory through immersion in field experiences that are shaped by feedback from experienced mentors.
All teacher education programs lead to faculty recommendation for Instructional Level I Certification that allows graduates to seek teaching positions in Pennsylvania’s public schools. We offer programs specializing in elementary education (currently, grades K-6), and the following secondary content areas (currently, grades 7-12): English, social studies, mathematics, earth science, biology, chemistry, and physics; for further information see: http://www.gse.upenn.edu/degrees_programs/eld_secondary.php
Penn GSE sponsors a new secondary master’s degree program specialization in religious education, intended to prepare educators for non-public schools affiliated with the Jewish, Islamic or Christian traditions; for further information, see:
http://www.gse.upenn.edu/degrees_programs/fpe_seje.php
We recognize that many Penn undergraduate students will explore teaching as a career while enrolled in Penn’s many undergraduate arts and sciences majors. One way for Penn students interested in exploring elementary teaching, secondary teaching, and educational policy to pursue these interests is to enroll in the urban education minor program, which is explained below. Qualified students can then pursue full certification by applying to the master’s degree programs, or to a special post-BA/BS semester of supervised student teaching and other classes. This 9th semester of full-time study is one of the ways Penn students can be recommended for teaching certification in Pennsylvania without enrolling in a master’s degree program. For more information, see:
http://www.gse.upenn.edu/degrees_programs/ugprog.php
Submatriculation into the master’s degree programs in elementary or secondary education while still an undergraduate extends beyond Penn to juniors and seniors in the Quaker Consortium (Haverford, Bryn Mawr and Swarthmore Colleges) who can, if admitted, take two courses in the elementary or secondary master’s degree programs that will dually count toward both the undergraduate and the master’s degrees.
All coursework is intended to support students in developing critical thinking about theoretical underpinnings, current research on teaching and learning, and contemporary issues in urban education
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