Educator Essentials
A foundation with options for all
Educator Essentials -- a common set of course options for all teacher education students to complete -- gives future Panther teachers a foundation to build upon.
Combined with your individual course content (such as elementary education, physical education teaching or biology teaching), your methods coursework ("how to teach") and your experience in the field (clinical internships and student teaching), Educator Essentials rounds out a base of knowledge, skills and tools that will prepare you to teach in and lead your future classrooms.
And great news! An overhaul of this set of courses, effective fall 2025, ensures you have more choices, more flexibility and a greater ability to adapt to changing interests and schedules to achieve a key goal: completing your degree on time.
What's New?
Six categories of essentials
- The Learner
- Social Contexts of Learning
- Education for All
- The Classroom Environment
- Effective Pedagogy
- The Professional Educator
Benefits for students
- Variety and choice: 26 course options in 6 categories
- Only one three-credit class required per category
- A professional foundation with general and specialized areas of focus
- Broader array of faculty across all colleges teaching courses
- More options as you balance needs and schedules
Educator Essentials At-a-Glance
| CATEGORY | COURSE | CREDITS |
| Category 1: The Learner | Reflections on Learning | 3 |
| Development and Learning in Sociocultural Contexts | 3 | |
| Creativity and Higher Order Thinking in the Classroom | 3 | |
| Rethinking the Learning Society: Education and Its Future | 3 | |
| Category 2: Social Contexts of Learning | Schools and American Society | 3 |
| History of Education | 3 | |
| Education Policy & Politics of Education | 3 | |
| Language Today | 3 | |
| Category 3: Education for All | Adapted Physical Education | 3 |
| Education, Power & Change | 3 | |
| Social Movements & Education | 3 | |
| Interdiscipinary and Intersectional Study of Education for All | 3 | |
| Meeting the Needs of Diverse Learners in Classrooms | 3 | |
| Category 4: The Classroom Environment | Deeper Motivation & the Highly Engaged Classroom | 3 |
| Level Up: Gamified Learning Environments | 3 | |
| Early Childhood Curriculum Development & Organization | 3 | |
| Playful Learning and Project-Based Experiences: Techniques for Educational and Recreational Environments | 3 | |
| Critical Perspectives on Technology & Education | 3 | |
| Category 5: Effective Pedagogy | Expressive Learning Assessment | 3 |
| Technology, Pedagogy and Learning in the Digital Age | 3 | |
| Assessment for Learning | 3 | |
| Effective Teaching through Differentiation, Technology & Assessment | 3 | |
| Category 6: The Professional Educator | Child, Family, School and Community Relationships | 3 |
| Teacher Leadership & Educational Change | 3 | |
| Collaborative Partnerships for Educators | 3 |