ISSUED: 16 March 2020
MEDIA CONTACT: Valerie Owens
SHEPHERDSTOWN, WV — Shepherd University education professor Dr. Jason Allen has been awarded a fellowship to attend the Holocaust Institute for Teacher Educators (HITE) June 1-4 at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.
HITE works with university and college education faculty to prepare them to incorporate Holocaust content and pedagogy into methodology classes so education students are better prepared to teach about the Holocaust when they become teachers. The program focuses on learning Holocaust history, examining U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum education resources, and discussing pedagogical considerations.
“The Shepherd students that I teach are going into secondary education, so they could end up teaching middle or high school, and we spend about two or three weeks talking about teaching very difficult topics,” Allen said. “Even though what we will focus on in the institute is rooted in the Holocaust, it would apply to any type of tragic event or genocide and how to approach it in the classroom with students from 10 to 18 years old. The goal is to get them to understand, have some empathy, and realize these are real people and real things that happened.”
Allen is one of 24 college professors from across the country who was selected for the institute.
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