LDQ Editorial 45.2

Abstract

In this issue, we present seven papers with a range of topics. Allen and Lembke focus on “The Effect of a Morphological Awareness Intervention on Early Writing Outcomes that offers readers with pertinent information regarding early writing. Simply put, morphology focuses on word formations where morphemes are the smallest meaningful units in language. Allen and Lembke’s paper offers readers insights about an intervention that teaches writers how to improve their writing skills by tapping into the study of morphology. The next paper, “Implicit Theories, Social Support, and Hope as Serial Mediators for Predicting Academic SelfEfficacy Among Higher Education Students” by Mana, Saka, Dahan, Ben-Simon, and Margalit provides insights about mediators for predicting academic self-efficacy, which appear to be critical for higher education students. The self-efficacy theory holds that individuals participate in tasks in which they think of themselves as being competent. In essence, self-efficacy is an understanding of one’s effectiveness in performing tasks. Johnson, King-Sears, and Miller’s paper, “High School Co-Teaching Partners’ Self-Efficacy, Personal Compatibility, and Active Involvement in Instruction” furthers information about self-efficacy along with other factors as they pertain to instruction and academic success. O’Connor, Sanchez, Jones, Suchilt, Youkhana, and Beach provide their paper, “Continuing CHAAOS: Vocabulary Intervention for Students With Disabilities in Eighth Grade Who Are Also English Learners (ELL).” Certainly, vocabulary instruction is important for all students and in particular those who are ELL. “Prior Academic Achievement as a Predictor of NonCognitive Variables and Teacher and Parent Expectations in Students with Learning Disabilities,” by Núñez, Rodríguez, Tuero, Fernández, and Cerezo draws our attention to the role of prior academic achievement as it relates to students with learning disabilities and the expectations of their teachers and parents. Certainly these role groups are a contributory factor to the role of academic achiement. We move on to Deng, Cai, Zhou, and Leung’s scholarly work about the role of “Executive Function and Planning Features of Students with Different Types of Learning Difficulties in Chinese Junior Middle School.” This paper can assist readers in a better understanding of how students operationalize these features and their outcome for junior middle school students. Finally, the Smith and Lembke paper, “Technical Adequacy of a Spelling Curriculum Based Measure for English Language Learners in the First Through Third Grade,” provides readers with a topic that does not garner sufficient attention: spelling, ELL, and primary grades students. We hope readers will find helpful information in all of these papers as they plan their research and intervention strategies for students with LD.