Editorial

Traditionally, literacy has been recognised as the ability to read and write. In fact, reading and writing form an indispensable foundation for human learning, which in turn induces various scholarly works. Among recent directions of reading research, emerging interests in readers with different backgrounds can be observed (Kendeou, 2014). Differences in languages (Tong, Tong, Shu, Chan, & McBride-Chang, 2014) as well as differences between monolingual and bilingual readers (Leikin & Shaul, 2014) have been relatively widely studied. In the current issue, Strømsø, Bråten, Anmarkrud, and Ferguson (2016) suggest that being an ethnic majority or an ethnic minority might also affect students’ reading comprehension due to their different cultural and language backgrounds, a result that has opened up a new possibility of related research. Another background factor that could affect readers’ comprehension, as reported by Song and Bruning (2016), is the geographic context. A familiar geographic context was found to have a positive impact on students’ comprehension.

Focusing on individuals, Nobre and Salles (2016) explored the relationship between lexical–semantic processing and reading. They found that word reading partially mediates the relationship between lexical–semantic processing and reading comprehension.

Apart from reading, writing also draws considerable attention. For alphabetical languages, spelling is a common factor shared by both reading and writing. Martins, Salvador, Albuquerque, and Silva (2016) studied the impact of an invented spelling programme on pre-school children’s spelling and reading in Portuguese. The positive result supported the inclusion of this type of programme in early literacy instruction.

This interest in the development of literacy is also present in the study by Collie, Martin, and Curwood (2016). Using a sample of Australian high school male students, the authors validated the Motivation and Engagement Wheel – a multidimensional motivation and engagement model developed by Martin (2007) – in a specific domain, namely boys’ writing. The results shed light on what could be done to enhance boys’ writing curriculum.

The current issue addresses the domain of cognition as well, and investigates the interplay between cognition and academic achievement. By studying a sample of public school students in Colombia, Hederich-Martínez and Camargo-Uribe (2016) found that cognitive style and educational performance are related in the sense that field-independent students were more likely to perform better both in standardised tests and in teachers’ evaluations. Lechuga, Pelegrina, Pelaez, Martin-Puga, and Justicia (2016) studied the prediction of academic achievement by working memory updating in a group of primary school students. By comparing numerical updating tasks with the students’ retrieval and substitution of information, it was found that the former can predict students’ performance more consistently.

Also interested in knowing more about grade prediction among college students, Kovac, Cameron, and Høigaard (2016) concluded in their research that the extended Theory of Planned Behaviour and past grades are significant predictors of grade intentions and actual achievement, while the influence of cognitive processes is insignificant in both aspects of prediction.

This issue also includes articles in other areas. Apart from cognition, there are other factors that influence students’ learning. Dotterer and Wehrspann (2016) examined a group of urban adolescents in the United States and reported that parental involvement is positively associated with students’ behavioural and cognitive engagement, which in turn contributes to their academic competence and achievement. A study of the meta-cognitive knowledge of South Korean early childhood educators done by Kim (2016) showed that teachers with better problem-solving strategies implement a better quality childcare curriculum, among which the strategies of step-by-step analysis, free production and analogy are meaningfully associated with the quality. On the other hand, Pezzica, Pinto, Bigozzi, and Vezzani (2016) explored the meta-cognitive knowledge of Italian school children. An analysis of the children’s thematic drawings on attention vs. inattention found that primary school children in their early years of study are aware of the behavioural, pragmatic and social aspects of attention, while awareness of other attention components are acquired at later ages.

The journal has consistently maintained substantial coverage in the frequently discussed areas of literacy, cognition and academic achievement in educational psychology. Studies completed by Law (2014), Nyroos and Wiklund-Hörnqvist (2012) and Phan (2010) published in the previous issues of the journal serve as examples of extended readings for inspiration. The current issue’s 11 articles enrich the literature, and foster our continuing exploration in the relevant fields.

Magdalena Mo Ching Mok