Walter Dearborn

Walter Fenno Dearborn (July 19, 1878 – June 21, 1955) was a pioneering American educator and experimental psychologist who helped to establish the field of reading education. Dearborn, who approached the study of psychology from the perspective of an empirical scientist, is perhaps best known for using empirical research to design and refine teaching methods. Dearborn’s research persuaded him that children develop at different rates and that schools should not ignore individual differences by teaching children in large groups or classes.

Dearborn was born in Marblehead, Massachusetts. He attended Boston public schools and then Phillips Exeter Academy, graduating in 1896. He earned a bachelor's degree (1900) and a master's degree from Wesleyan University.

In 1903, Dearborn began studying for a doctorate at Columbia University where he was the student of James McKeen Cattell. His interest in the psychology of reading and human development promoted him to spend a year studying medicine at the University of Göttingen. He eventually returned to Germany to earn a Doctor of Medicine degree. Dearborn’s dissertation was published under the title, The Psychology of Reading: An Experimental Study of the Reading Process and Eye-Movements (1906).

Dearborn's doctorate degree was quite important as it was an interest of his that remained consistent and provided for his greatest contributions to psychology. In a monograph entitled "Special Disabilities in learning to read and write" Dearborn contributed a section on "etiology of congenital and word blindness". Dearborn contributed a great deal to the function of the eye and 'reading'. He discovered that there were multiple type of readers including "part-word, whole word and mixed-type readers". Furthermore, Dearborn continued a great deal in producing a number of papers and research on reading disabilities.

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