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Dwight W. Allen, Professor

Dwight W. Allen is Eminent Scholar of Educational Reform at Old Dominion University and has developed educational reform initiatives for more than forty years. As Stanford University's director of teacher education he helped develop an award winning internship program. As Dean of Education at the University of Massachusetts, he implemented a teacher training program that was named the outstanding program of the year by the American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education. He served as education advisor to President Nixon for the White House Conference on Education. For the past 14 years he has been working with the World Bank and The United Nations Development Program as chief technical advisor and international advisor for the largest UNDP education programs in China. He has been helping to modernize teacher and administrator training, and incorporate sustainable teacher improvement through distance education techniques. He serves as Guest Professor at three Chinese Universities. At Old Dominion University (ODU) he co-founded the PRIME program in Norfolk Public Schools with thirteen systemic change initiatives focused on teacher empowerment. He was the principal investigator for a $1.3 million grant to improve the technology training of teachers. He is the author of nine books on educational reform and teacher education (one co-authored with former student, Bill Cosby), has served as consultant to more than 100 national, state and local school authorities, and has served as principal investigator on numerous grants and contracts. Currently he coordinates NewPAGE, ODU's environmental education class required for more than 2000 freshmen each year.

Present Positions:

  • Eminent Scholar of Educational Reform, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia, 1978
  • International Technical Advisor, UNDP/CPR/01/403: Using Distance Education and ICT to Improve Teacher Quality in Poor Areas of Western China
  • Guest Professor, Northwest and Yancheng Normal Universities, and Heilongjiang University, China
  • Senior Fellow, Phelps Stokes Foundation, January, 2001 - present
  • Academic Director, East-West Education Enterprises, developing Omni University in China, English speaking, granting American degrees.

Selected Publications:

Books:

  • NewPAGE: New Portals to Appreciating our Global Environment, (with others), Pearson Custom Publishing, Boston, 2005
  • Formula 2+2: Simple Solutions for Successful Coaching (with Douglas Allen), Berrett-Kohler, San Francisco, In Press 2004
  • Collaborative Peer Coaching That Improves Instruction: The 2+2 Performance Appraisal Model, with Alyce Leblanc, Corwin Press, Thousand Oaks, 2004
  • American Education: The $100 Billion Dollar Challenge, (with Bill Cosby), Time-Warner, 2000 (One of six non-fiction finalists in the International eBook Awards, Frankfurt, Germany, 2001)
  • Reciting the Verses of God, (with Shahin Vafai), Baha'i Publishing Trust, New Delhi, India, 1997
  • Microteaching, (with Wang Weiping) Xin Hua Publishing, Beijing, 1996 (published in Chinese)
  • Schools for a New Century. Praeger Press, 1992

Selected Chapters and Monographs:

  • "The Effects of Technology on Educational Theory and Practice: A 20-Year Perspective." By Dwight Allen, Technology in Education: A Twenty-Year Retrospective, ed. D. Lamont Johnson, Haworth Press, 2003.
  • "How Baha'i Principles of Education can Promote World Peace," Chapter in the book, Creating the Culture of Peace, Indira Gandhi Foundation, New Delhi, India, 1999
  • Learner Centred Education (with others), Ministry of Education, Namibia, 1995
  • Microteaching, (with others), Ministry of Education, Namibia, 1995
  • Educational Theory and Practice, (with others), Ministry of Education, Namibia, 1995
  • "Critical Issues Facing the Future of Virginia Education" in Critical Policy Choices for Virginia, edited by Robert De Voursney, Center For Public Service, University of Virginia, 1994
  • "Microteaching in Botswana," chapter in Konkrete Padagogik, Attempto Verlag Tubingen, GmbH, 1988, pp. 11-24
  • "We Can Influence the Future!" in The Changing Composition of the Workforce. Edited by Albert S. Glickman. Plenum Publishing Corporation, New York, 1982.
  • "Urban Education: Hope and Prospect." in Learning Tomorrows. Peter H. Wagschal, ed. New York: Praeger, 1979.

Selected Articles:

  • "Win - Win Models - Instruments of Peace," Proceedings of the University of Maryland Conference on Diversity, Unity and Human Values, University of Maryland Press, 1998
  • "Baha'i Perspectives on Diversity, Unity and Human Values," Proceedings of the University of Maryland Conference on Diversity, Unity and Human Values, University of Maryland Press, 1998
  • "2+2 for Teachers: The PRIME Teacher Appraisal Program," The High School Magazine, June-July, 1997
  • "Improving Our Unacknowledged National Curriculum" (with Robert Brinton). The Clearing House, January/February, 1996, pp. 140-143.
  • "The Decline of the Textbook," The Best of Change Magazine, 25th Anniversary Edition, May/June, 1994

Professional Contributions:

  • Consultant to more than 100 school districts, county, state, federal and international agencies.
  • Recipient and principal investigator of more than 20 grants and contracts from private foundations, state and national agenciestotaling more than $6,000,000.
  • Principal Investigator, ACTT Now, The Brunswick County Schools and Old Dominion University
  • Consortium for Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers for Technology (PT3).Co-Founder of Project PRIME (with Roy Nichols, Superintendent of Schools, Norfolk, Virginia) - a long term project to restructure inner city schools in Norfolk.