Minor in DragonsTeach Certification

About the Minor

The DragonsTeach minor provides students from a variety of majors across the university with the skills, practices, and experience required for leading learning experiences. It gives them the pedagogical skills to teach the content they are learning in their major.

Through a practice-based set of courses that has students perform fieldwork in local schools and other learning environments while developing research-based pedagogical skills, students blend theory and practice. For example, students begin the minor with a course that requires them to observe a teacher and then refine and teach their own lesson. Grounding their learning in the real work of engaging and teaching children and youth in Philadelphia, the courses in the minor introduce important skills required for being a teacher like planning learning experiences, assessing learners’ thinking, adapting learning experiences to learners’ needs and experience. The courses also introduce the sociocultural perspectives important for being a teacher like understanding the sociopolitical contexts of schools and learners experiences and viewing the role of schools and other learning spaces in developing a more just future.

Students finish the minor prepared to teach in a variety of settings across the formal and informal learning spectrum. Students who complete this minor are prepared to take the Teaching Experience minor that will make them fully eligible for certification in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, which also has reciprocal agreements with a large amount of states in the US.

The DragonsTeach minor pairs opportunities to be in local schools and other learning environments throughout its course program while learning about content and pedagogies, offering a truly experiential learning experience.

Admissions Requirements

Students are required to declare a major before declaring a minor. Students admitted directly into a specific major at the time of matriculation may declare a minor beginning in their second semester. All requirements for the minor must be completed either concurrently with or prior to the completion of the primary major requirements. This ensures that students fulfill the expectations of their primary field of study while completing any additional areas of academic specialization.

Minor Requirements

Additional Information

For more information about this program, please contact the School of Education