Julian Elliott

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Julian George Charles "Joe" Elliott, FAcSS (born 27 July 1955) is a British academic and educational psychologist. He has been Principal of Collingwood College, Durham since 2011, and a Professor of Education at Durham University since 2004. He has caused controversy by describing dyslexia as a 'useless term' and a 'meaningless label'.

Contents

Early life and education

Elliott was born on 27 July 1955 in Epsom, Surrey, England. He was educated at Wimbledon College, an all-boys voluntary aided catholic school. He studied at Durham University. [1]

Career

Elliot qualified as a teacher and taught in mainstream and special schools. He then practised as an LEA educational psychologist. [2]

In 1990, he became an academic, and joined the University of Sunderland as a lecturer. [3] He was promoted to professor in 1998 with the award of a personal chair within the School of Education. [4] He rose to be Acting Dean of the university's School of Education and Lifelong Learning. [5] In 2004, he joined Durham University as Professor of Education and the Principal of Collingwood College. [5]

In addition to his university work, he sits on a number of editorial boards. He is the Associate Editor of the British Journal of Educational Psychology and he is a member of the board for the British Educational Research Journal , Learning and Individual Differences , and Comparative Education . [2]

Dyslexia debate

One of Elliott's first papers that challenged the conceptualisation of Dyslexia, co-authored with Dr Simon Gibbs, was published in the Journal of Philosophy of Education. [6] This sparked controversy and has been widely cited. Elliott co-authored a book with Elena L. Grigorenko titled The Dyslexia Debate which was published in early 2014. [7] The book, and his previous work, has argued that there is no difference between poor readers and dyslexic people; dyslexia is a 'useless term' and a 'meaningless label' that should be discontinued. [8] [9] It also suggested that the diagnosis was being misused by middle-class parents to get additional support for their children, [10] and that state schools are much less inclined to make a diagnosis because the pressures it would put on their limited budgets. He supports better funding of literacy education would help to overcome this unbalanced system as the same techniques help both poor readers and dyslexic people, rather than a continuation of the present system. [11]

His research has been controversial. [8] [11] His publications were used by Graham Stringer, a British Member of Parliament, to support his view that dyslexia was 'a cruel fiction'. [12] He suggested that funding should be redirected from targeted support to better teaching of literacy; 'A whole industry has sprung up around creating a medical condition when what is needed is better methods to teach children to read.'. [13]

Professor John Stein of the University of Oxford has disagreed with his conclusion saying that there dyslexia is separate to reading difficulties caused by low intelligence because dyslexia has genetic, immunological and nutritional causes. [11] A joint statement from Sir Jim Rose, a former director of OFSTED, and Dr John Rack, a director of Dyslexia Action, spoke against Elliot's conclusion and supported the current definition of dyslexia. [14]

Honours

In 2010, Elliott is elected a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences (FAcSS). [1] [15]

Related Research Articles

Dyslexia, also known as reading disorder, is characterized by trouble with reading despite normal intelligence. Different people are affected to different degrees. Problems may include difficulties in spelling words, reading quickly, writing words, "sounding out" words in the head, pronouncing words when reading aloud and understanding what one reads. Often these difficulties are first noticed at school. When someone who previously could read loses their ability, it is known as "alexia". The difficulties are involuntary and people with this disorder have a normal desire to learn. People with dyslexia have higher rates of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), developmental language disorders, and difficulties with numbers.

Collingwood College, Durham

Collingwood College is a college of Durham University in England. It is the second largest of Durham's undergraduate colleges with around 1100 students. Founded in 1972 as the first purpose-built, mixed-sex college in Durham, it is named after the mathematician Sir Edward Collingwood (1900–70), who was a former Chair of the Council of Durham University.

Reading disability

A reading disability is a condition in which a sufferer displays difficulty reading. Examples of reading disabilities include: developmental dyslexia, alexia, and hyperlexia.

Uta Frith German developmental psychologist

Uta Frith is a German developmental psychologist working at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London. She has pioneered much of the current research into autism and dyslexia, and has written several books on the two subjects arguing for autism to be considered a mental condition rather than being caused by parenting. Her book Autism: Explaining the Enigma introduces the cognitive neuroscience of autism. She is credited for creating the Sally-Anne test along with fellow scientist Alan Leslie and Simon Baron-Cohen. She also pioneered the work with child dyslexia. Among the students she has mentored are Tony Attwood, Maggie Snowling, Simon Baron-Cohen and Francesca Happé.

Management of dyslexia

Management of dyslexia depends on a multiple of variables; there is no one specific strategy or set of strategies which will work for all who have dyslexia.

Deep dyslexia is a form of dyslexia that disrupts reading processes. Deep dyslexia may occur as a result of a head injury, stroke, disease, or operation. This injury results in the occurrence of semantic errors during reading and the impairment of nonword reading.

This is a list of artistic depictions of dyslexia.

Wanstead High School Community school in Wanstead, Greater London

Wanstead High School (WHS), formerly Wanstead County High School, is a co-educational, non-denominational, comprehensive secondary school in Wanstead, London, United Kingdom.

Thomas Richard Miles, T. R. Miles, more usually Tim Miles, was Emeritus professor of psychology at Bangor University.

Dyslexia is a neurological symptom wherein an individual experiences difficulty reading. The neurological nature and underlying causes of dyslexia are an active area of research, and the distinction of dyslexia as a condition is a topic of some controversy.

Dislecksia: The Movie is a documentary film. It was created in 2013 by Captured Time Productions, LLC, a production company based in Litchfield, Connecticut. Dislecksia is the company's seventh film. It is directed by Emmy Award-winning director Harvey Hubbell V, who is a dyslexic himself.

Special educational needs (SEN), also known as special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in the United Kingdom refers to the education of children with disabilities.

Kate Griggs is a British social entrepreneur best known for her work in the field of dyslexia. She is the founder of the dyslexia charitable organisation, Xtraordinary People. Her public speaking has ranged from the last Conservative Party Conference to appearances on TV & Radio.

Dyslexia Action

Dyslexia Action founded in 1972 is an organisation, based in Staines, UK, with three main divisions:

The Council for the Registration of Schools Teaching Dyslexic Pupils (CReSTeD) is a charity which maintains a register of schools for dyslexic children in the United Kingdom. The use of upper and lower case letters for the acronym CReSTeD is an attempt to graphically represent the difficulties a person with dyslexia suffers when trying to read.

Learning Ally, which was previously named Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic (RFB&D), is a non-profit volunteer organization operating nationwide in the United States. It produces and maintains a library of educational accessible audiobooks for people who cannot effectively read standard print because of visual impairment, dyslexia, or other disabilities.

Margaret Jean Snowling is a British psychologist, and world-leading expert in language difficulties, including dyslexia. She is currently President of St John's College, Oxford and Professor in the Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford. Snowling was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2016 for services to science and the understanding of dyslexia. She was born in South Shields.

Judit Kormos Hungarian linguist

Judit Kormos is a Hungarian-born British linguist. She is a professor and the Director of Studies for the MA TESOL Distance programme at the Department of Linguistics and English Language at Lancaster University, United Kingdom. She is renowned for her work on motivation in second language learning, and self-regulation in second language writing. Her current interest is in dyslexia in second language learning.

References

  1. 1 2 "ELLIOTT, Prof. Julian George". Who's Who 2017. Oxford University Press. November 2016. Retrieved 3 December 2016.
  2. 1 2 "Prof Julian Elliott". Dialogue Society. 2011. Retrieved 15 October 2013.
  3. ↑ "Keynote Speakers". ERAS 2006 Conference. Educational Research Association of Singapore. 2005. Archived from the original on 17 June 2006. Retrieved 15 October 2013.
  4. ↑ "Chairs". Times Higher Education. 19 January 1998. Retrieved 15 October 2013.
  5. 1 2 "Prof Joe Elliott". Staff. Durham University. Retrieved 15 October 2013.
  6. ↑ Elliott, Julian (2008). "Does dyslexia exist?". Journal of Philosophy of Education. 42 (3–4): 475–491. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9752.2008.00653.x.
  7. ↑ Julian G. Elliott; Elena L. Grigorenko (2014). The dyslexia debate. ISBN   9780521119863.
  8. 1 2 "Is dyslexia just a myth?". The Guardian. 7 September 2005. Retrieved 25 May 2014.
  9. ↑ "The Dyslexia Debate – Prof Julian Elliott, Durham University". Driver Youth Trust. Archived from the original on 25 May 2014. Retrieved 25 May 2014.
  10. ↑ "Dyslexia 'is used by parents as excuse for slow children'". The Times. 28 May 2007. Retrieved 25 May 2014.
  11. 1 2 3 "Why Dyslexia Does Exist". dysTalk. Retrieved 25 May 2014.
  12. ↑ "MP brands dyslexia a 'fiction'". BBC News. 14 January 2009. Retrieved 25 May 2014.
  13. ↑ "Dyslexia is 'a cruel fiction', says Manchester Blackley MP". The Guardian. 13 January 2009. Retrieved 25 May 2014.
  14. ↑ "Dyslexia Lobby unites behind dyslexia diagnosis" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 May 2014. Retrieved 25 May 2014.
  15. ↑ "Member Academicians". Academy of Social Sciences. Archived from the original on 23 July 2013. Retrieved 15 October 2013.
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Preceded by
Ed Corrigan 		Principal of Collingwood College, Durham
2011 to present		Incumbent
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