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· A proper educational environment is one where teachers encourage students, students encourage one another, and parents and community encourage schools and teachers — as well as their own children in their learning. And students must be trained to encourage their teachers as well. -- Dwight Allen


ECI 301

ODU

Courses Taught at Old Dominion University

Social and Cultural Foundation of American Education

In his course Social and Cultural Foundation of American Education, both online and realtime, which he taught for more than 20 years, Dr. Allen talked about American educational history and philosophy, and current educational issues such as gender issues, school curriculum today, barriers for educational improvement, and teachers' role in educational change. He also emphsized the importance of technology infusion into classroom and of new findings of brain research. Globalization and multiculturalism are two pillars for his theme of educational perspectives. The primary textbook for this course was the student written WikiBook, Social_and_Cultural_Foundations_of_American_Education (for the latest editions of this WikiBook, for the course now taught by Dr. Jennifer Kidd, see Foundations of Education and Instructional Assessment). His book American Schools: The $100 Billion Challenge, coauthored with Bill Cosby was used as a supplemental text.

English Composition

He taught sections of the introductory course in English Composition for many years.  He found it troubling that a course that everyone said was important was resented by those who took it and not seen as a premium teaching assignment for most of those who taught it.  He had four main objectives for the course which were successfully realized as he enjoyed teaching the class: learn to write better, learn to write more quickly, learn to judge the difference between good and bad writing, and enjoy the process.

NewPAGE

Dr. Allen served as founding chairman of the coordinating committee for ODU's required, multidisciplinary freshman course, NewPAGE, New Portal to Appreciating Our Global Environment.  In the last of the four years in which it was offered it had an enrollment of 2600 students, with weekly meetings in the Basketball Pavilion, and twice weekly small groups taught by 35 graduate teaching assistants.

Other Courses

Other graduate seminars included ECI 701/801: Theories of Learning and Instruction, ECI 752/852: Curriculum Problems in the Changing Urban School and Society, ECI 741/841: Change Issues in Curriculum and Instruction (course WikiBook: Change Issues in Curriculum and Instruction) , and ECI 797/895: Multicultural Issues in Curriculum Development.