Bridging the rural divide in STEM Education through culture, design thinking & gamification in Malaysia

Research funded by AHRC and the Newton Fund is creatively transforming approaches to education for school children in rural areas of Malaysia through game design and computational thinking. Malaysian school children in under-resourced areas have increased their engagement with STEM subjects and developed stronger soft skills through these practices. School children in remote areas are often unable to access the same quality of education as their counterparts in urban settings. When resources are low, subjects that are deemed less academic often take a backseat, placing school children in rural Malaysia at a disadvantage. The widening educational gap reduces the opportunities available for these communities and can hinder economic growth. Professor Sylvester Arnab, based at Coventry University’s Disruptive Media Learning Lab, alongside Dr Jacey-Lynn Minoi, Mr Terrin Lim, and Dr Fitri Mohamad from Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) were awarded a research grant ‘Creative and Participatory Transcultural Practices and Problem Solving Through Game Design and Computational Thinking (CreativeCulture)’ through The Newton Fund. They have addressed the widening educational divide by co-creating gamed based learning resources and training teachers to develop and deliver their own resources in their respective schools