Course Information and Acknowledgements
This course is based on a a guide book developed for a course on reading. This and other courses were part of a technical communications strategy in the Global Partnership for Education in 2010-2013. The strategy aimed at informing staff of government and donor agencies on how to teach low-income students most efficiently and thus impart basic skills and minimize illiteracy.
The course has been developed on the basis of cognitive science that is research on how people learn most efficiently. The content benefited from daily updates of memory research as well as reports of reading programs in various countries. The course also benefited from extensive peer reviews and revisions during 2013-2014.
The work benefited from very substantial support by Dr. Analice Schwartz, who continued working past the call of duty on this project. It also greatly benefited from the creative genius of instructional designer, Isabelle Duston, and the ET4D company.
The author and implementer of the technical communications strategy was Helen Abadzi, a Senior Education Specialist at the World Bank in 1987-2013. Dr. Abadzi retired on August 1, 2013 and completed the reading e-course on a volunteer basis while a researcher at the University of Texas at Arlington.
Accuracy and implications have greatly benefited from communications with many researchers. Thanks are due to Marialuisa Martelli, Pierluigi Zocolotti, Stanislas Dehaene, Johannes Ziegler, Kenneth Pugh, Marc Schwartz, and others.
Thanks and gratitude are also due to Jeanne Gerlach, Dean, College of Education and Health Professions, University of Texas at Arlington.
The materials were adapted by Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan (CW4WAfghan) with assistance from the University of British Columbia's Master of Educational Technology program.