Book Reviews

Books Reviewed in this Article: Used Numbers. SMP 11-16 Handling Data Booklets. Statistics. Basic Statistical Computing. Innumeracy: Mathematical illiteracy and its consequences.     

Do We Need Incentives for PhD Supervisors?

This article presents empirical results of explorative case studies that examine whether the New Public Management mechanisms have improved the academic performance of PhD education in selected German and European economics departments. Our data rely on document analyses of organisational variables and in-depth semi-structured interviews with professors in Germany and several European countries. We propose a typology of departments along their PhD production technology and suggest that organisational improvements should look at the processes through which new professional standards gain acceptance in departments and at the means by which long-term incentive problems of collective action in a department are solved.     

Coming to Grips with Continuous Assessment

In the aftermath of the apartheid years the South African education system is being reformed and the curriculum transformed. One reason for doing so is that the old curriculum, apart from being the product of a universally discredited past, is also inappropriate for a developing economy in the 21st century. The new curriculum espouses outcomes based education. This shifts curricular emphasis from prescribed content knowledge to a learner centred, teacher facilitated, activity based style of education. Teachers must become adept at perceiving clues to a learner's thinking by observing science activities closely. The method of 'dynamic assessment' is discussed. It involves teachers eliciting clues or observing and interpreting learners' actions as a reflection of their concept development. By acting immediately when the learner is judged to be at a 'point of divergence' the teacher can pre-empt a conceptually costly meander. Teaching in this way requires confidence as well as good subject knowledge. The Primary Science Programme (PSP), where both authors are employed, is an in-service organisation. The PSP's work suggests that clear performance indicators which articulate distinctly what teachers must focus on is a powerful teaching and in-service mechanism. The new South African curriculum is discussed and shown to be demanding for teachers.