Reading Scientific Images

The iconography of evolution

A seminal study, The University in Development explores how the university is indeed 'in development': pursuing a new 'third' mission of external societal development (alongside its two existing missions of teaching and research), and experiencing a major internal revolution as this impacts on its structural organisation. Already prevalent in many institutions internationally, this third academic mission has begun to pose troubling challenges to existing academic research cultures and systems in South Africa.

Nurses are often said to be the backbone of health services, but in South Africa their profession itself is in need of care. This monograph considers the profile, image and status of nursing today and the nature and role of nursing education. A major concern is that, although nursing still attracts many more students than there are places available, the gap between the large numbers who complete their training and the relatively small growth in the professional registers, indicates high attrition rates. The decline in the role of the public sector in the training of nurses is another worrying trend.

Internationally and locally, there is growing emphasis on the importance of effective school management and leadership in contributing to good student achievement outcomes. Instructional leadership has become a key concept in the research literature, reflecting an attempt to better understand the relationship between school leadership, curriculum and instructional matters, and student achievement. Managing to learn is the first study of its kind in South Africa, considering these issues in a sample of 200 schools in two provinces. The research reported in this monograph provides an extensive review of the literature around the management of curriculum and instruction, a framework and methodology for the research, and the empirical findings from the study. Through a series of regression analyses, the study presents those management factors identified across a wide range of schools as most crucial to improved performance of students. It brings greater clarity to the somewhat undifferentiated view of school management currently, and a sharper focus on its importance in relation to how students learn.

The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) assesses mathematics and science knowledge of fourth and eighth grade learners around the world. South Africa, where learners were assessed at the fifth grade, participated in TIMSS 2015, assessing mathematics; and in TIMSS 2019, assessing both mathematics and science.