Differentiated need support by teachers: Student-specific provision of autonomy and structure and relations with student motivation.

Background: According to self-determination theory, teachers can support their students' engagement in learning by providing autonomy support and structure. Within classes, however, there appears to be great diversity in the extent to which students experience autonomy and structure.

Aims: This study aimed to investigate the degree to which teachers' perceptions of student-specific autonomy support and structure differ between students in their class and whether differentiated need support predicts students' motivation.

Teacher-student relationship quality from kindergarten to sixth grade and students' school adjustment: A person-centered approach.

The present study used a person-centered approach to identify teacher-student relationship trajectories from kindergarten to sixth grade in a Dutch sample (N = 1300). Teachers reported about relationships with individual students (closeness, conflict, and dependency) in kindergarten, grade 3, and grade 6, and about externalizing behaviors in kindergarten. Students were tested for verbal ability in kindergarten, and completed math and reading tests and questionnaires about task motivation and self-efficacy in sixth grade.

Psychometric properties and convergent and predictive validity of an executive function test battery for two-year-olds.

Executive function (EF) is an important predictor of numerous developmental outcomes, such as academic achievement and behavioral adjustment. Although a plethora of measurement instruments exists to assess executive function in children, only few of these are suitable for toddlers, and even fewer have undergone psychometric evaluation. The present study evaluates the psychometric properties and validity of an assessment battery for measuring EF in two-year-olds.

Student-teacher relationship quality and academic adjustment in upper elementary school: the role of student personality.

This study tested a theoretical model considering students' personality traits as predictors of student-teacher relationship quality (closeness, conflict, and dependency), the effects of student-teacher relationship quality on students' math and reading achievement, and the mediating role of students' motivational beliefs on the association between student-teacher relationship quality and achievement in upper elementary school. Surveys and tests were conducted among a nationally representative Dutch sample of 8545 sixth-grade students and their teachers in 395 schools. Structural equation models were used to test direct and indirect effects.

Fluorescent vital labeling to track cestodes in a copepod intermediate host.

In experimental studies of host-parasite interactions, it is often important to track parasites in their hosts and to discriminate between individual parasites. We used the fluorescent tracer dyes 7-amino-4-chloromethylcoumarin (CMAC) and, 5-chloromethylfluorescein diacetate (CMFDA) for vital labeling of Schistocephalus solidus (Cestoda) coracidia larvae. Labeling was fast and easy to perform and enabled microscopic detection of parasites appearing as procercoids in the hemocoel of the copepod intermediate host at 3 h after exposure.

BODY SIZE DECLINES DESPITE POSITIVE DIRECTIONAL SELECTION ON HERITABLE SIZE TRAITS IN A BARNACLE GOOSE POPULATION.

Analyses of more than 2000 marked barnacle geese (Branta leucopsis) in the largest Baltic colony, Sweden, showed that structurally large females generally produced larger clutches and larger eggs, hatched their broods earlier in the season, and produced more and heavier young than smaller females. In males, the corresponding relationships between reproductive parameters and structural body size were weaker or nonsignificant. Because structural body size traits have previously been found to be significantly heritable and positively genetically correlated, an increase in mean structural body size of individuals as a response to selection might have been expected.