Dwight W. Allen (August 1, 1931 – October 16, 2021) was a professor of education, eminent scholar, and lifelong education reformist. He served as a professor and Director of Teacher Education at his alma mater, the Stanford Graduate School of Education from 1959 to 1967. He was Dean of the College of Education, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, from 1968 to 1975. In 1978, Allen became a Professor of Education and Eminent Scholar of Educational Reform at Old Dominion University in Virginia. Allen retired from Old Dominion University in July 2008.
He was the author of nine books on educational reform and teacher education, including one book co-authored with former student, Bill Cosby. He has consulted with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to help devise strategies to bring better information to smallholder farmers in South Asia and Africa.
He died on October 16, 2021. He was 90.
Education
Allen earned his B.A. (1953), M.A. (1957), and Ed. D. (1959) degrees from Stanford University.
Initiatives and achievements in education reform
Since his Stanford days as a graduate student and later as a faculty member, Allen was committed to integrating technology into teaching and learning and to extensive education reform. In Stanford, he developed the first computer based school scheduling system and microteaching, which is a teacher training practicum that has been used worldwide ever since then.
When he became the Dean of Education at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, in 1968, Allen contended with the status quo and worked to combat institutional racism. He allowed students to create their own programs and abolished the traditional grading system. The college of education recruited non-traditional students and students of color, such as the then nationally famous comedian Bill Cosby, for their doctoral programs, Doctoral students were made voting members of the faculty and participated fully in the governance of the college of education. Allen argues that the career achievements of the doctoral programs' graduates have vindicated his radical reforms.
Allen has worked toward educational reform worldwide. In Lesotho he served as Founding Chief Technical Advisor for the National Teacher Training College (1974–76). In Botswana he served as Technical Advisor to the Molepolole College of Education (1986–89). In Greece, he served as Professor at the Kollegion Athenon (1953–54). In China, he served as Consultant to the United Nations Development Programme Project and focused on educational reform and teacher training (1991–2009). He has consulted on educational reform in more than 50 countries.
As a lifelong educational technology advocate, Allen himself served as an exemplar for the integration of technology in teaching and learning in his own instructional work. He believes "Education needs dot-com leaders desperately".
Allen proposed many new education reform initiatives in his co-authored book with Bill Cosby: American School: The 100 Billion Dollar Challenge. These initiatives range from establishing a national school reform experimentation system (NESA: the National Experimental Schools Administration) to merit pay for teachers. Allen and Cosby also proposed year-round school, 15-hour school days, strong community involvement in schools, professional discretion, professional incentives, and integration of technology.
Both Allen and Cosby view education as a fundamental aspect of national defense. They argue that we need to invest in education at similar levels to our military.
Microteaching
Microteaching was developed in the early and mid 1960s by Allen and his colleagues at the Stanford Teacher Education Program. It was designed to enhance teaching via open collegial discussion about teaching performance. The original Stanford model took a “teach → review & reflect → re-teach approach”, using actual school students as an authentic audience. The model has been adapted to college and university teacher training programs where it has been used most often to elicit a concentrated, focused form of peer feedback. The rationale of Microteaching is to apply collegial constructive criticisms to improve one's own teaching/learning strategies and, through assuming the student role, to sharpen one's insight into students' teaching/learning needs and expectations.