Progress in Education

The ongoing Progress in Education series presents substantial results from around the globe in selected areas of educational research. Schools are institutions that sail in the tempest of educational issues, reforms, strategies, data and tools, as well as reflect changes in society. Embedded in all of these are technology, diversity, and innovation - their inevitability has been demonstrated in our schools and communities. Chapter One examines how the assessment and evaluation practices in higher education are changing and how these changes are prompted by accelerating trends related to technology adoption. Chapter Two describes the components involved in virtual storytelling (characters avatars - setting and systems), methodological references, and their possible use in classroom or laboratories. Chapter Three reviews the teaching of academic home language proficiency skills in primary schools. Chapter Four examines challenges of mathematics teaching in South African primary schools. Chapter Five discusses the best practices and models for student retention and success for colleges and universities in retaining and graduating first generation underrepresented minority students. Chapter Six presents the importance of structured musical education from 6 months up to the age of three, with the focus on the research findings of the two Slovenian projects. Chapter Seven presents the music software Imagination tools, that uses mathematical models to generate, analyse and synthesise sound and music through a 3D graphical user interface, and has been designed according a User-Centred Strategy. Chapter Eight focuses on the authors reflections on incorporating Technology-Enhanced Learning (TEL) in undergraduate medical education at a private university in a developing country.