John Downing (educational psychologist)

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 continued to compare how reading was taught in different countries through the lens of his theory all the way to his death in 1987. One of his last researches was in Papua New Guinea which had over 800 spoken languages, so it was a natural laboratory for his final work. He titled his work;- "Experiments in Linguistics and Literacy in Papua New Guinea" (1986).

He also held several prominent roles with its sister organisation, the International Literacy Association, who awarded him with the International Citation of Merit in 1984. Downing's roles for the International Literacy Association were: -

By 1975, Downing, as an expert in teaching children to read & write, gave evidence to the Bullock inquiry into the teaching in schools of reading and the other uses of English. There were two broad areas where Downing's expertise was sought: -

Downing replaced James Pitman, who was the founder of the initial teaching alphabet, as chairman of the simplified spelling society in 1972, a post he was to hold until his death. After his death, the society published the following obituary in its journal: -

As an example, one of Downing's early academic papers was on the use of Japanese Furigana as a teaching aid, this was published in the journal Forward Trends on 15th October 1971.

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.

Downing won multiple accolades for his work, including 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. 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.

In 1963, Downing became the founding president of the United Kingdom Reading Association, now known as the United Kingdom Literacy Association.

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.

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. 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: -

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.

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.

Professor 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 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. 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.