The Tribune

Dr Patrice Juliet Pinder is a Bahamian born, noted international STEM based researcher and scholar who is making research waves not only in her home country, but also in the United States, China, and Trinidad and Tobago.

STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The term is typically used when addressing education policy and curriculum choices.

This February, Dr Pinder co-partnered with the Lyford Cay International School to put on the Bahamas’ first national STEM Game-Based Learning (GBL) mini conference for K-12 educators.

The conference was held under the theme “Promoting GBL and Action Based Classroom Research”, and attracted approximately 50 teachers and administrators from both the private and public schools. The educators represented 10 schools, seven public and three private schools. At the workshop style conference, educators were:

• Introduced to digital and non-digital games (paper based games) and the educators were allowed to play the various games

• Instructed on the linkage between the types of games used and their proper use as either instructional tools or as tools for reinforcing concepts, reviewing concepts, or as simple tools for testing purposes (as formative and summative assessments/pre-test or post-test measures)

• Allowed to engage in a teacher interactive session where they created their own game ideas for use in their classrooms

• Introduced to the process of evaluating the benefits of gaming tools and teaching strategies (action research)

Dr Pinder is set to publish the first piece of research on GBL to come out of the Bahamas in April 2018.

The mixed-methods research study will be published in the New York based journal International Journal of Education and Culture and is entitled “In-Service STEM Teachers’ Perceptions of Using GBL in Primary and Secondary Instruction in the Bahamas.”

Dr Pinder has also published two other articles in the US – “Exploring the Effects of GBL in Trinidad and Tobago’s Primary Schools: An Examination of In-Service Teachers’ Perspectives,” and “Caribbean and African Students’ Performance in STEM in the Diaspora—Canada, USA, and the UK: A Test of John Ogbu’s Theoretical Model.”

In China, Dr Pinder teamed up with Dr Jinyan Huang, a tenured professor from Niagara University to co-facilitate a mixed-methods (qualitative plus quantitative) research mini conference for PhD candidates in China.

Dr Huang instructed the students on quantitative research designs and analysis and Dr Pinder instructed the students on qualitative designs and analysis—identifying various forms of qualitative research designs, coding techniques, and generating themes from collected field data, be it field interviews or otherwise.

In Trinidad and Tobago, while serving in residence as a visiting STEM Education Researcher at the University of the West Indies (UWI), St Augustine Campus, Dr Pinder led several non-STEM and STEM education research initiatives, such as: created STEM based projects, co-facilitated several K-12 teacher-training sessions on game-based learning, and provided grant writing assistance to UWI’s School of Education staff who requested it.

Dr Pinder credits her successes to faith, hard work and determination. She believes that anyone can succeed despite setbacks and obstacles. Dr Pinder can be contacted at dr.patricepinder@gmail.com.