As the 30th year of The Australian Educational and Developmental Psychologist (AEDP) draws to a close there is much to be optimistic about as we embark upon a further 30 years of contributing to the profession of educational and developmental psychology in Australia and beyond.
The College of Educational and Developmental Psychology is somewhat unique in that the interests of practitioners and academics vary considerably, due to the diversity and the eclectic nature of practice. The College has members located in the respective psychology-related fields of disability, ageing, schools, counselling, clinical, among many. As an editor of a journal that attempts to cover such a range of specialisms, I am reliant upon the submissions from that broad range of important perspectives. There will always be variance as to the levels of coverage in any issues, but if we consider the breadth of articles since 2010 it is clear that the AEDP has succeeded in providing quality contributions, which are wide in scope. Examples of the range of articles have included learning styles (Rayner, Reference Rayner2013), the role of school psychologists (Bell & McKenzie, 2013), dynamic assessment (Lauchlan, Reference Lauchlan2012), psychological wellbeing in adolescents (Martinez et al., Reference Martinez, Martin, Liem and Colmar2012), men and depression (Rice et al., Reference Rice, Fallon and Matthew Bambling2011), and community knowledge and beliefs about ADHD (Gilmore, Reference Gilmore2010).
The eclectic nature of the skill set of many educational and developmental psychologists ensures that the diverse range of abilities that are esconsed with this endorsed title remain in high demand.
In this issue we have been fortunate to have received five very strong articles, including two from world-leading researchers in working memory and psychological processing, respectively. The first is Alloway and Copello's review of working memory and the role it plays in learning, from preschool through to university level and beyond. The authors assert that working memory assessment is a more accurate predictor of learning ability than many of the standard cognitive tests currently used by psychologists. The second article, by Denham, is also in the learning domain and discusses the nature of psychological processing deficits and how their identification can lead to more accurate discovery of specific learning difficulties. In a useful Jordanian study, Abu-Hamour discusses the nature of improving Arabic spelling with either curriculum-based measurement and/or ordinary spelling instruction in various classroom situations. In the fourth article, Eckersley and Deppeler present the findings of a qualitative study that considered the variance of practice of school psychologists in the state of Victoria, Australia. The authors put forward suggestions for improving practice and removing barriers to the enhancement of a quality school psychology service. Finally, Magson and colleagues provide a timely study which considers how domain-specific motivational goals vis-à-vis student motivation may be much more diverse than has been previously thought.
For the second year, the final issue also includes a short section on the submitted theses to the various Educational and Developmental Psychology courses currently available in Australia. The respective universities of Melbourne, Australian Catholic University, Monash, and Queensland University of Technology have supplied the titles, students, and supervisors, which should provide an insight into the excellent research in educational and developmental psychology at these respected institutions.
