“Education is not just about filling minds,” said Professor Brian Cockburn, “it’s about lighting fires.”
The Dean of UWI St Augustine’s Faculty of Science and Technology was speaking in his capacity as Acting Campus Principal at an event created specifically to celebrate those fire starters, the igniters of higher education, who sparked students’ minds.
Held in late September at the St Augustine Campus’s LRC Auditorium, The UWI/Guardian Group Premium Teaching Awards honours faculty members for their excellence as educators. This year’s awardees were Dr Yomica Powder-George, Dr Letetia Addison, and Dr Freddy James.
The ceremony was themed "Empowering Educators, Enriching Learners: The AI Education Era”. Professor Mike Sharples, Emeritus Professor of Educational Technology at UK-based institution The Open University, gave the keynote address, which focused on the impact of artificial intelligence on education.
Ms Samanta Saugh, President of Guardian Life of the Caribbean, said “Artificial intelligence represents one of the greatest opportunities to revolutionise how we work, learn and grow. We must embrace it as a tool for progress, with care, wisdom and integrity.”
Since 2000, the Guardian Group has partnered with The UWI’s Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) to host the Premium Teaching Awards and The UWI/Guardian Group Premium Open Lecture Series. CETL calls the awards an “innovative partnership celebrating teaching excellence at the St Augustine Campus”.
“For me,” Dr Addison, a Project Officer II at the University Office of Planning, said, “teaching has always been a true vocation and lifelong calling which I treasure deeply,”
Previously featured in UWI TODAY for her work as T&T’s Ambassador to the Women in Data Science Worldwide Conference”, she said the Premium Teaching award “is a testament not only to my dedication to advancing Mathematics and Statistics Education but also to the commitment of everyone who has supported me along the way—my colleagues, students, family, and mentors.”
She added, “More than anything, I view this award as a reflection of the impact we can have as educators. It is a sign that the effort we put into creating inclusive, innovative, and meaningful learning environments truly makes a difference in shaping the minds of our students and preparing them for the future.”
Dr Powder-George, a Lecturer in Organic Chemistry at the FST, called the award “a profound honour” and “a testament to the dedication and passion I have for my students and the subject matter I teach”.
She added, “everything I do is for my students, so knowing that my intentional efforts to create inclusive, engaging and supportive learning environments have been recognised in this way is very humbling.”
Dr Powder-George was also proud to be a representative of the Department of Chemistry, and their first Premium Teaching Award winner.
For Dr Freddy James, Deputy Dean of Graduate Studies and Research and Senior Lecturer at UWI St Augustine's School of Education, it has been a season of accolades. Last year, she was recognised as Most Outstanding Faculty Researcher in the Faculty of Humanities and Education at the Principal’s Research Awards 2023.
In a recent interview, she described one of the innovations she uses in teaching and learning that has the most impact as “a problem-based or lab-based approach” which she learned from a team she partnered with in Finland.
“It is a problem solving approach,” she said, “and using human-centred pedagogy in order to work out solutions. Everything you need to learn in terms of the content of a particular course you bring into play, but it is done with the focus of solving a problem.”
This approach, she said, “has helped motivate students to learn. It has really empowered students to want to learn.”
Dr James is currently partnering with the International Forums of Inclusion Practitioners to foster inclusive educational practices globally.
In her teaching, Dr Powder-George said she uses a student-centred approach, which emphasises the use of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) as a blueprint for creation, coupled with a variety of innovative teaching strategies to scaffold learning and make organic chemistry accessible and relevant to her students.
As a researcher focused on applications of plant natural products and their synthetic derivatives, she hopes, she said, “to see and be a part of strengthening regional interdisciplinary collaborations in Natural Products Chemistry through knowledge sharing, resource pooling, and the development of joint research projects with emphasis on the application of research to address regional challenges”.
Dr Addison, who is both a data scientist and advocate for the growth of data science in the Caribbean, said her goal at The UWI is to keep advancing innovative approaches to teaching, particularly by integrating AI and data-driven methods into subjects like Mathematics and Statistics, which can be challenging for many students.
“Beyond The UWI,” she added, “I am eager to expand my work into more international collaborations focused on climate resilience, sustainability, and the role of data in solving global challenges. I also want to continue advocating for gender diversity and inclusivity in STEM.”
The three awardees were not the only ones to receive recognition at the ceremony. CETL Director Dr Leroy Hill and Faculty Development Specialist Dr Justin Zephyrine presented a special award to Professor Indar Ramnarine, the former Deputy Principal of UWI St Augustine. Prof Ramnarine, who recently retired, is a distinguished scientist. He served as Deputy Principal from 2017 to 2024, and in that post he was deeply involved in the provision of student services, and was an advocate for students.
“His leadership and expertise have been instrumental in shaping policies and initiatives that promote sustainable resource management and environmental protection,” said CETL. “As the founding Dean of the Faculty of Science and Technology, Professor Ramnarine led a major curriculum revision, introducing innovative programmes in technology and science.”
To view videos of the UWI/Guardian Group Premium Teaching Award winners, visit The UWI St Augustine YouTube page at https://www.youtube.com/@uwistaugustine. For more information on the partnership between The UWI and the Guardian Group, visit the CETL website at https://sta.uwi.edu/cetl/.
