John Downing (educational psychologist)

John Downing (1922–1987) was a British educational psychologist who started his career as a teacher then worked as an academic from 1960 until his death in 1987.

He published over 300 academic papers in his 27-year academic career, specialising in both how children read and how they learn to read.

His three main fields of study were the initial teaching alphabet, the psychology of reading and the comparison of reading methods across different languages and cultures.

His principle works in each of these fields were Evaluating the Initial Teaching Alphabet, Reading & Reasoning and Comparative Reading. Fundamentally, Downing was an educational psychologist and his main lifetime achievement was the formulation of the cognitive clarity theory of learning to read.

Downing won the award of Doctor of Literature by the University of London near the end of his career.

He was elected a fellow of the British, Canadian and American Psychology Learned Societies & Associations and as a fellow to the Royal Society for Arts.

Downing was born in England in 1922 and married Marianne Downing who often took on the role of his research assistant.

They had three children together: - Andrew Downing, Charles Downing and Rupert Downing.

After starting his teacher training in 1947, Downing spent nearly a decade until 1957 acquiring practical experience in teaching children at elementary, secondary and special schools, in particular, he taught children to read and write from kindergarten age, Downing considered this experience essential in his later works and often stated how he was often baffled by children's difficulties in learning to read.

Downing also studied for his degree in Psychology during the later period of his teaching career and only ended his teaching career after successfully completing his degree course.

After graduating Downing left teaching and worked as a communications research officer for Unilever in England between 1958 and 1960.

This was a short interlude between his teaching and academic work.

In 1960, after his time at Unilever, Downing returned to the University of London and joined the Institute of Education where he took-up the newly formed role of director of the reading research unit.

The reading research unit was created to run a trial of James Pitman's initial teaching alphabet, a novel approach to teaching children to read where an interim orthography, consisting of an alternative alphabet and regular spelling system were used instead of the irregular traditional English orthography.

Downing spent seven years in the role, studying the initial teaching alphabet, he was to credit this key time as providing him with the crucial insights which inspired the majority of his later academic work.

It was during this time that Downing attained his PhD and both began to be known as Dr. John Downing and became a senior lecturer of Educational Psychology.

To remediate this, Downing wrote the Downing Readers which were designed specifically for the i.t.a. and these were all published in the 1960s, although eventually, there were several authors for the Downing readers, Downing was the accredited author of the following: -

• Paul

• Sally

In 1963, Downing was the founding president of the United Kingdom Literacy Association, he also served on the board of directors of the International Literacy Association, who awarded him with the International Citation of Merit and inducted him into their Hall of Fame.

The government called on Downing to give evidence to both the Plowden and Bullock committees of inquiry.

He emigrated from England to Canada in 1970 but spent several periods of time working in other parts of the world, especially the United States of America.

Downing was known for his trademark dress code in which he wore bold check jackets with unusual bootlace badge ties, fashion characteristics which contrasted with his kind, quiet and scholarly manner.

He had a couple of personal traits which endeared him to most of his colleagues and allowed him to form many enduring friendships.

On initial introduction to new people, he had the uncanny ability to remember their names and where they both lived and worked, he also was quick and magnanimous in giving recognition to his colleagues and finally he was generous in providing assistance to his colleagues, altogether he was known as someone with a perpetually friendly manner.

In 1970, Downing took up the post of Professor of Psychological Foundations in Education at Victoria University, British Columbia, Canada, which he held until his death.

It was during this time, following his emigration to Canada, that he produced some of his most significant academic works.

Three times during his career, Downing took up positions of some longevity as a visiting professor:-

In addition, Downing also served as a visiting professor for shorter durations in Australia, China, Finland and the Soviet Union.

This was especially important later in his career for his study of comparative reading which also notably took him to Japan & Papua New Guinea as a researcher.

As the director of the reading research unit, Downing spent seven years studying the initial teaching alphabet designed by James Pitman to teach children to read.

He was amply supported by the fourteen colleagues in the reading research unit, in particular his deputy William Latham who was accredited in some of the academic publications.

The unit was further supplemented by seven senior lecturers from educational colleges who served one-year secondments on a rotating basis.

During his time at the reading research unit, Downing carried out two scientifically controlled, largescale trials of the initial teaching alphabet: -

Downing published a large body of academic work related to the initial teaching alphabet both whilst he was the director of the reading research unit and afterwards when he became a professor, this is comprehensively listed in his vitae, the more notable papers are listed below: -

In addition, Downing published five books on the initial teaching alphabet: -

The initial teaching alphabet started being taught using existing basal reading schemes transliterated into i.t.a. but originally designed specifically around the nuances of traditional orthography, such as the Janet & John series of reading books.

After a 3-month struggle with cancer over the spring of 1987, Downing eventually succumbed to his illness and died on June 2, 1987, aged 65.

Downing continually improved his education throughout his life, while interspersing his learning with professional and academic work.

He attained his teaching certificate in his twenties, his degree in his thirties, his PhD in his forties and was finally awarded the higher doctoral degree of D.Lit (Doctor of Literature) in his sixties as an acknowledgment of his academic successes by the University of London.