Fonds AR042 - John Downing fonds

John Downing was born in England in 1922. He received his teacher training at Oakley College, Cheltenham, and obtained a B.A. and Ph.D. in psychology at the University of London. He was Director of the Reading Research Unit and Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of London Institute of Education. He also served as Visiting Lecturer at a number of institutions, including the University of California, Berkeley, in 1967-1968. In 1970 he came to Canada and was appointed professor of education at the University of Victoria that same year. At UVic he served as President of the UVic Faculty Association in 1973-1974.

Downing's chief area of interest was the teaching of reading and writing. He was the first President of the U.K. Reading Association, a national affiliate of the International Reading Association, on whose International Development Committee Downing served during the mid-1970s. At the Reading Research Unit, he helped develop the "Teachers' Course in Writing in i.t.a." [Intitial Teaching Alphabet] in 1965. He published 11 books and over 150 articles on educational and psychological topics, and wrote extensively on problems associated with learning to read. Among his books are "Comparative Reading: Cross-Cultural Studies of Behavior and Processes in Reading and Writing" (London and New York: Macmillan, 1977), a report on his international study of reading in 14 countries. Downing also published a reader series, "The Downing Readers", and a series of English dictionaries, "The Pyramid Primary Dictionaries". In 1984, Downing became the second Canadian ever to be awarded the International Citation of Merit of the International Reading Association for leadership in the field.

John Downing died in England on 2 June 1987 after a three-month illness.