Measuring Teachers' Social-Emotional Competence: Development and Validation of a Situational Judgment Test

Teachers' social-emotional competence is considered important in order to master the social and emotional challenges inherent in their profession and to build positive teacher-student relationships. In turn, this is key to both teachers' occupational well-being and positive student development. Nonetheless, an instrument assessing the profession-specific knowledge and skills that teachers need to master the social and emotional demands in the classroom is still lacking. Therefore, we developed the Test of Regulation in and Understanding of Social Situations in Teaching (TRUST), which is a theory-based situational judgment test measuring teachers' knowledge about strategies for emotion regulation and relationship management in emotionally and socially challenging situations with students. Results from three studies (N = 166 in-service teachers, N = 73 in-service teachers, N = 107 pre-service teachers) showed satisfactory internal consistency for both the emotion regulation and relationship management subtests. Furthermore, confirmatory factor analyses supported the differentiation between the two facets of social-emotional competence. Regarding convergent validity, results from Study 3 revealed a positive association between the profession-specific TRUST and pre-service teachers' general emotional intelligence. Furthermore, small to moderate correlations with the Big Five personality traits provided evidence for the discriminant validity of TRUST. In Studies 1 and 2, we found evidence for a correlation with external criteria, that is, teachers with higher test scores reported providing more emotional support for students and having better teacher-student relationships. For teachers' occupational well-being, we found a link with symptoms of depersonalization and job satisfaction, but none for emotional exhaustion. We will discuss the use of TRUST in research, for the evaluation of interventions, in teacher education, and professional development and will illustrate ideas for enhancing the tool

Die Lehrer-Schüler-Beziehung ist positiv für beide Seiten: Zusammenhänge mit der schulischen Anpassung der Lernenden und dem beruflichen Wohlbefinden der Lehrkräfte

A positive teacher-student relationship that is characterized by mutual trust, warmth, and teacher support (= proximity) as well as clear limits for student behavior (= influence) is considered central for students’ cognitive and psychosocial development and this assumption has widely been supported empirically. However, these studies largely focused on domain-specific student outcomes such as achievement or interest in particular subjects and less so on general aspects of school adjustment such as school satisfaction or self-esteem. At the same time, the teacher-student relationship can also be considered vital for teachers: Teachers who perceive difficulties in controlling student behavior report reduced occupational well-being. In addition, the teachers’ need to feel appreciated and liked by students is increasingly emphasized as an important resource for their occupational well-being. However, this assumption has not been investigated sufficiently. Therefore, the present work addressed the question of whether the teacher-student relationship in terms of proximity and influence is associated with students’ general school adjustment and teachers’ occupational well-being. Results from study 1 revealed that teacher proximity and influence were associated with students’ general school adjustment in terms of achievement, school satisfaction, truancy, and self-esteem. Study 2 showed that teachers who perceived difficulties in controlling student behavior and who felt unappreciated by students reported lower work enthusiasm and higher emotional exhaustion. In Study 3, teachers who felt related with their students reported higher work enthusiasm, whereas no association with their emotional exhaustion was found. The present work underlined the importance of the teacher-student relationship for both students’ school adjustment and teachers’ occupational well-being.Eine positive Lehrer-Schüler-Beziehung, die durch Wärme und lehrerseitige Unterstützung (= Nähe) sowie klare Grenzen für Schülerverhalten (= Einfluss) charakterisiert ist, wird als zentral für die kognitive und psychosoziale Entwicklung der Lernenden angesehen. Diese Annahme wurde empirisch bestätigt. Allerdings lag der Fokus dabei auf domänenspezifischen Outcomes und weniger auf allgemeinen Aspekten der schulischen Anpassung. Darüber hinaus kann angenommen werden, dass die Lehrer-Schüler-Beziehung auch für Lehrkräfte von Bedeutung ist: Lehrkräfte, die Schwierigkeiten mit der Steuerung des Schülerverhaltens wahrnehmen, berichten ein verringertes berufliches Wohlbefinden. Weiterhin wird zunehmend der Zusammenhang zwischen schülerseitiger Wertschätzung mit dem beruflichen Wohlbefinden der Lehrkraft betont. Diese Annahme wurde empirisch allerdings bislang kaum geprüft. Daher untersucht die vorliegende Arbeit die Frage, ob die Lehrer-Schüler-Beziehung, charakterisiert durch Nähe und Einfluss, mit der allgemeinen schulischen Anpassung der Lernenden sowie mit dem beruflichen Wohlbefinden von Lehrkräften verbunden ist. Die Ergebnisse von Teilstudie I zeigten, dass lehrerseitige Nähe und Einfluss mit der allgemeinen schulischen Anpassung im Sinne von Leistung, Schulzufriedenheit, Schwänzen und Selbstwert assoziiert waren. Teilstudie II fand, dass Lehrkräfte, die Schwierigkeit mit der Kontrolle von Schülerverhalten wahrnahmen und sich von diesen nicht wertgeschätzt fühlten, einen geringeren beruflichen Enthusiasmus und eine höhere emotionale Erschöpfung berichteten. In Teilstudie III hatten Lehrkräfte, die sich sozial eingebunden mit ihren Schülerinnen und Schülern fühlten, einen höheren beruflichen Enthusiasmus, wohingegen kein Zusammenhang mit emotionaler Erschöpfung bestand. Die vorliegende Arbeit unterstreicht die zentrale Bedeutung der Lehrer-Schüler-Beziehung für die schulische Anpassung der Schülerinnen und Schüler und für das berufliche Wohlbefinden von Lehrkräften

PREditOR: A synthetic biology approach to removing heterochromatin from cells

It is widely accepted that heterochromatin is necessary to maintain genomic stability. However, direct experimental evidence supporting this is slim. Previous studies using either enzyme inhibitors, gene knockout or knockdown studies all are subject to the caveat that drugs may have off-target effects and enzymes that modify chromatin proteins to support heterochromatin formation may also have numerous other cellular targets as well. Here, we describe PREditOR (protein reading and editing of residues), a synthetic biology approach that allows us to directly remove heterochromatin from cells without either drugs or global interference with gene function. We find that removal of heterochromatin perturbs mitotic progression and causes a dramatic increase in chromosome segregation defects, possibly as a result of interfering with the normal centromeric localization of the chromosomal passenger complex. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s10577-016-9539-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

The Centromere:Chromatin Foundation for the Kinetochore Machinery

Since discovery of the centromere-specific histone H3 variant CENP-A, centromeres have come to be defined as chromatin structures that establish the assembly site for the complex kinetochore machinery. In most organisms, centromere activity is defined epigenetically, rather than by specific DNA sequences. In this review, we describe selected classic work and recent progress in studies of centromeric chromatin with a focus on vertebrates. We consider possible roles for repetitive DNA sequences found at most centromeres, chromatin factors and modifications that assemble and activate CENP-A chromatin for kinetochore assembly, plus the use of artificial chromosomes and kinetochores to study centromere function

Epigenetic engineering shows that a human centromere resists silencing mediated by H3K27me3/K9me3

Centromeres are characterized by the centromere-specific H3 variant CENP-A, which is embedded in chromatin with a pattern characteristic of active transcription that is required for centromere identity. It is unclear how centromeres remain transcriptionally active despite being flanked by repressive pericentric heterochromatin. To further understand centrochromatin’s response to repressive signals, we nucleated a Polycomb-like chromatin state within the centromere of a human artificial chromosome (HAC) by tethering the methyltransferase EZH2. This led to deposition of the H3K27me3 mark and PRC1 repressor binding. Surprisingly, this state did not abolish HAC centromere function or transcription, and this apparent resistance was not observed on a noncentromeric locus, where transcription was silenced. Directly tethering the reader/repressor PRC1 bypassed this resistance, inactivating the centromere. We observed analogous responses when tethering the heterochromatin Editor Suv39h1-methyltransferase domain (centromere resistance) or reader HP1α (centromere inactivation), respectively. Our results reveal that the HAC centromere can resist repressive pathways driven by H3K9me3/H3K27me3 and may help to explain how centromeres are able to resist inactivation by flanking heterochromatin

Latching

Latching refers to the immediate transition from one turn-constructional unit (TCU) into the next without the usual beat of silence in between the two units

Rush-through

Rush-throughs are tempo-related turn-holding devices which allow current speakers to extend their turn beyond a possible completion point