*Article* **Formative Potential of the Development and Assessment of an Educational Escape Room Designed to Integrate Music-Mathematical Knowledge**

**José Carlos Piñero Charlo 1,\*, Paula Ortega García 1 and Sara Román García 2**

**Abstract:** In the particular case of Spain, student and teacher difficulties associated with the mathematical discipline have been evidenced in PISA and TEDS-M reports. As we consider that the teachers' difficulties are connected to the students' performance, we propose a multi-disciplinary approach to deliver specific didactic/mathematical knowledge to the trainee teachers. Such additional instruction shall be meaningfully connected to the real needs of the schools, so a service-learning approach is proposed here. In the present manuscript, the trainee teachers have co-designed educational escape rooms (in coordination with local schools) with the aim of mobilizing curricular knowledge. The goal of the educational escape rooms is to foster the mathematic-related competencies by establishing meaningful connections to other curricular disciplines (music-related knowledge, in the case of this study). This paper reports on the particular experience developed with a group of students (trainee teachers) while designing their educational escape rooms, focusing on the particular case of a specific student to evidence the formative potential of the procedure. The didactic suitability of the proposed escape room has been analyzed and professional development has also been discussed, showing the mobilization of relevant professional skills and fostering the related music and mathematical didactic competencies by shifting the teaching perspective from an algorithmic point of view to a more "reasoning and designing" strategy. This constitutes an evidence of the formative potential on the co-design of educational escape rooms, when designed in the frame of a service learning approach.

**Keywords:** teacher instruction; motivation; curricular integration; mathematics instruction

## **1. Introduction**

A school's curriculum may appear unrelated, fragmented or somewhat disjointed due to the lack of communication and connection among topics and subjects. This fragmentation often affects students' performance inducing lack of interest and confusion, thus, perceiving some knowledge as useless and affecting the experience being delivered to them in school [1]. Indeed, some core curricular subjects seem to be clearly affected by these problems, particularly scientific and mathematical knowledge. For the particular case of Spain, schoolchildren show their worst results in scientific knowledge in PISA [2] tests (scoring below the OECD average). The PISA 2018 report indicates that such a result might be due to students' lack of capacity to formulate, manage, and interpret mathematics in a variety of contexts. This bad performance might be related to the lack of connections of scientific/mathematical knowledge to other curricular topics, but might also be related to their teachers' specific lack of knowledge. Indeed, for the sake of comparison, PISA statistic data can be compared to that of the TEDS-M report [3], thus, giving information on the teachers' specific lack of mathematical knowledge. In doing so, worrisome data regarding the mathematical and didactic knowledge of on-service teachers are revealed

García, P.; Román García, S. Formative Potential of the Development and Assessment of an Educational Escape Room Designed to Integrate Music-Mathematical Knowledge. *Educ. Sci.* **2021**, *11*, 131. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci 11030131

**Citation:** Piñero Charlo, J.C.; Ortega

Academic Editor: David Geelan

Received: 15 February 2021 Accepted: 15 March 2021 Published: 18 March 2021

**Publisher's Note:** MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

**Copyright:** © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).

(see Figure 1). These results reveal the key importance of specific "mathematical training programs" for teachers' education, with Spain teachers lightly below the mean score for both didactic and mathematic knowledge. In this regard, Figure 1 shows the average performance of 15-year-old students in mathematics (regardless of the school type and grade attended), evidencing a wide gap between the Spanish score (blue line) and the average OECD score (orange line). Figure 1 also shows the score provided by the TEDS-M report for the didactic-mathematical knowledge of on-service teachers, where Spanish teachers are also below the OECD average.

Attending to Figure 1 data, it is clear that countries with a specific teacher education in mathematics score higher that those with a generic teacher education. Furthermore, the poor performance of Spanish students could be related to the low didactic-mathematical knowledge of their own teachers.

Therefore, two main challenges should be attended: (i) To solve the "curricular isolation" of the mathematics discipline, promoting the ability to establish connections and (ii) designing a specific teacher academic education in mathematics as a way to improve didactic-mathematical knowledge.

This manuscript constitutes a research report, showing data corresponding to a "mentoring program" to deliver specific didactic-mathematic education to students (trainee teachers). We would like to face both challenges at once, creating a framework to treat the "isolation" and the low didactic knowledge in mathematics. To solve the perceived "curricular isolation" of the mathematics discipline, the use of curricular integration techniques can be an approach, which may help establish connections. In this regard, Anglin [4]

insights that "integrating curriculum correctly requires more than combining two subjects, or turn teaching". Therefore, in effective curriculum-integration models knowledge is meaningfully related, connecting in such a way that it becomes relevant to other areas of learning, as well as in real life.

In this contribution, the authors assume that a curricular integration approach may lead to a significant improvement in the students' mathematical skills (including reasoning mathematically and using mathematical concepts, procedures, facts, and tools to describe, explain, and predict phenomena). It is also assumed that curricular integration may motivate students to perceive mathematical knowledge as useful. Finally, a schoolchild and future teachers should "enjoy while doing mathematics", so a gamification approach is also considered. The main goals of this study can be summarized as:

	- Delivering specific didactic-mathematical knowledge in touch with on-service teachers and schools.
	- Designing, analyzing, and implementing problem-solving scenarios (educational escape rooms) as a way to mobilize professional didactic-mathematical skills.

To do so, the authors (researchers and teachers at the University) have created a mentoring program formalized as two academic year's student/teacher cooperation. The goal of the mentoring program was to improve the didactic-mathematical knowledge of participant students (trainee teachers). This goal should be achieved in two stages (each one, corresponding to a different academic year). Both years would be dedicated to solve specific mathematical difficulties reported by on-service teachers in cooperating schools. Difficulties would be treated by designing gamified environments (educational escape rooms), specifically developed to mobilize mathematical competencies in a curricular integration approach. That is, students should design an educational escape room which shall mobilize curricular knowledge as a way to promote connections and relations among the different curricular subjects. In doing so, some research questions should be answered by the students: Can an educational escape room be used to work music and mathematical knowledge? How can music and mathematics didactic situations be analyzed?

The project started with a small group of five cooperating students, creating a team able to design, implement, evaluate, and re-design such educational escape rooms in close relation to cooperating primary education schools (CEIPs). This procedure allows students (future teachers) to enjoy a "specific mathematic education", in close relation with their own interests, while providing valuable support to the CEIPs. Students should have accomplished the core mathematic education of the "Primary Education Degree" of the University career, so the 2-year cooperation was designed to go beyond the core instruction.

In this manuscript, we present one of the educational escape rooms designed by one of the five cooperating students, analyzing its didactic suitability, exploring the possibilities of curricular integration, and analyzing the professional development achieved by this specific student.

#### **2. Background and Framework**

As mentioned in the Introduction Section, this manuscript presents an educational escape room (EER) designed by students with the aim of mobilizing mathematic competencies, while emphasizing connections in a curricular integration approach. EER should be useful to treat specific mathematic difficulties reported by the on-service teachers. Therefore, as the aim of this procedure is the implantation and evaluation of the designed EER, students have been in touch with the cooperating schools (coordinating, scheduling, and programming the interventions). This section presents a brief discussion of the theoretical framework which inspired the core ideas of the study.

#### *2.1. The Need for Curricular Integration*

Criticism of a standards-based curriculum began when the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) [5] produced the Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for Schools in 1989 [6]. Since then, numerous evidences have been reported on the effects of changing from a traditional mathematics curriculum to an integrated mathematics curriculum on student mathematics learning [7,8]. In Europe, and as a consequence of the Bologna Process (a European process to adapt education to the new reality), an aptitude-based perspective has been used to inspire the new curricula [9,10]. In this context, adopting curricular integration approaches have been recommended in all educational stages.

Curricular integration is a way to promote interdisciplinary teaching, and can be defined as a method used to teach across curricular disciplines, with the aim of bringing together previously separated disciplines around common themes, issues or problems [11]. Literature [12] identifies seven common elements which are shared among different integrated curriculum approaches: (i) A combination of subjects, (ii) an emphasis on projects, (iii), the use of a wide variety of source material beyond textbooks, (iv) highlighting relationships among concepts, (v) thematic units, (vi) flexible schedules, and (vii) flexible student grouping. Curricular integration approaches have become more and more widespread as the emphasis of the learning process has emphasized on connections and skill development rather than on curricular disciplines [13].

One way curriculum developers have created a standards-based curriculum is by arranging consecutive integrated courses, which incorporate different content and process standards [14]. However, this can in fact lead to a disintegration of curriculum if great care is not taken to review and base learning on the previous year's topics [15]. Since an integrated curriculum generally alternates between content strands, students can lose the understanding of mathematical systems [15], so a problem-based approach is required.

In the particular case of Spain, curricular integration approaches are being used to give an answer to students who ask "what is this knowledge useful for?", since "meeting the reality is one of the aims of an educational system" [16]. In this regard, J. Torres [16] spotted that "some knowledge will only make sense when integrated with the living reality".

In the present contribution, authors aim to educate students (future teachers) for an effective music-mathematical integration. In this regard, the proposal aims to encourage our students to allow children in primary and early childhood education to explore and play in both music and mathematics and to experience the synergy of exploring the two subjects as one. For future teachers to be confident in their ability to incorporate integrated approaches in the teaching of music and mathematics, teachers may need to re-conceptualize what it is that makes an activity "musical" and "mathematical". This may require support from higher education tutors and teachers and is likely to take time to develop. However, experience to date indicates that, when experienced teachers and trainee teachers engage in appropriate activities for themselves, they quickly develop the confidence to explore the activities further and even go on to create activities of their own [17]. Finally, the proposed approach is supported by previous research [18], which reports that teachers became more comfortable at the global thought of integrating music and core academic objectives, with a slight increase in the confidence level in integrating music with reading, math, science or social studies objectives.

#### *2.2. Co-Design of Didactic Situations*

Some authors report that a real empowering in learning processes can be achieved by the educational co-design [19]. Participatory design (originally co-operative design, now often co-design) is an approach to design attempting to actively involve all the participants in the design process to help ensure that the result meets their needs and is usable. In the particular case of education, participatory design should allow students to investigate and develop their own learning processes via peer-to-peer discussions and teachers' feedback [20]. In this regard, the co-design of didactic situations shall fit with the principles mentioned in literature [21,22], which can be summarized in:

In the case of this manuscript, the co-design approach is used to fit creative tasks cooperatively developed by on-service school teachers, students, and the authors of this manuscript (researcher and teachers at the University). Participatory design processes should be based on a question to be solved, whose treatment could be supported and enhanced by the use of virtual learning networks [23]. With the aim of respecting such principles, the procedure employed in this research involved the creation of a small "designer team" (constituted of five students). To enhance the process, this "designer team" should be coordinated in the creation of problems, activities, tasks, tests, narrative, etc. to be taken into account when designing an EER. On-line and face-to-face meetings with the researchers in charge (authors of the manuscript) were scheduled, in order to provide feedback to the students. Moreover, virtual meetings with on-service teachers at the school were also scheduled to verify that the designed EERs were fitting with their needs, as well as to plan different implementations.

#### *2.3. A Service-Learning Approach*

In 1979, Robert Sigmon [24] defined service-learning as an experiential education approach that is premised on "reciprocal learning" suggesting that since learning flows from service activities, both those who provide the service and receive it "learn" from the experience. In Sigmon's view, service-learning occurs only when both the providers and recipients of the service benefit from the activities. Since its original idea, service-learning has evolved to become a methodology, a teaching-learning tool (and even a pedagogy by itself) that combines the service to a community with the professional formation and the needed reflection, which enrich the learning experiences of students and teachers [25].

Nowadays, service-learning is considered an educational approach that combines learning objectives with community service in order to provide a pragmatic, progressive learning experience, while meeting societal needs. This methodology involves students in service projects to apply classroom learning for local agencies that exist to effect positive change in the community.

In this particular study, authors have assumed a service-learning approach to boost students' learning experience, while meeting the school needs (specifically, schoolchildren's mathematical difficulties). With this approach, researchers would like to simultaneously attend to the students and schoolchildren's mathematical difficulties. This approach aims to contribute to solve the situation spotted in the Introduction (see Figure 1). In the presented experience, university students (primary education trainee teachers) have cooperated with several schools to design and implement educational escape rooms that fit the specific school needs.

#### *2.4. Educational Escape Rooms as a Formative Tool*

A conventional escape room consists of a live-action, team-based game where players are jailed in a room where they will have to solve puzzles in order to unravel a story and escape before the available time ends. Using mathematical puzzles (such as situations of calculus resolution, data acquisition, probability determination, etc.) the players get access to a combination of numbers that enables them to open mechanisms that grant access to other puzzles. The last enigma (or the combined result of some enigmas), grants the final code to escape the room. Finally, there is a "game master" supervising the escape room experience, who can eventually communicate with the players.

In this contribution, the authors' starting hypothesis considers that an escape roombased activity might be a powerful educational resource to create learning opportunities for primary-school schoolchildren, but also to promote professional skills on trainee teachers by designing EERs. This approach is shared by other authors in literature [26]. Using an EER to tell a story, students are transformed into protagonists of an escapism tale and, to have success, they will have to mobilize curricular knowledge (conveniently fitted to the educational level of the students). In addition, this resource fosters collaboration, allowing the development of social skills (cooperation between players is essential to complete the adventure). Furthermore, the EER can be used to deliver an integrated experience, so that knowledge is not isolated but meaningfully connected to the different clues, tools, enigmas, scenery, and other elements of the ERR.

We have already demonstrated the potential of EERs to promote knowledge [27], by designing the experience of a problem-based game and emphasizing the equivalent game-problem [28,29]. In this regard, the literature reports that problem-based learning approaches may help mitigate the different mathematics performances evidenced in PISA reports [30]. Design criteria and guidelines were provided to students, but the proposal presented here could not be implemented (due to the COVID-19 pandemic). Therefore, the potential of the EER in terms of "useful teaching tool to be used in primary education" could not be presented in this manuscript. However, the students' design of EERs will be evaluated in terms of professional development, analyzing the didactic suitability as well as the fit to the design criteria, needs of the school, and success as a curricular integration tool.

#### **3. Methodology**

In January 2017, the project started with the idea of co-designing gamified environments (educational escape rooms—EERs) so that students have a way to interact with on-service teachers, researchers (authors of the manuscript), and schoolchildren. The goal of the project was to promote didactic and mathematic knowledge in a meaningful way for both students and schoolchildren.

#### *3.1. Design-Based Research and Didactic Engineering*

Design-based research (DBR) is a family of methodological approaches for the study of learning in context [31]. It uses the design and systematic analysis of instructional strategies and tools, trying to ensure that instructional design and research are interdependent. In a first practical approach, DBR consists of orienting research to introduce innovations in education. One of the DBR main characteristics is the introduction of new elements that shall transform the situation [32]. DBR aims to provide answers to real problems (detected in the educational reality) taking scientific theories or theoretical models as a starting point which is available for solving such problems. To this aim, programs, didactic packages, tools, didactic strategies, etc. are designed, tested, and validated so, once improved, can be diffused to the school reality.

The design-based research process is often presented in two stages: (i) The research process until a new product is created and the successive improvements, and (ii) delivering knowledge so that new principles can contribute to the new design process. The product is not only composed of material tools (textbooks, video, computer apps or simulations, etc.) but also composed of processes and procedures (teaching methods, schoolchildren scheduling plans, didactic strategies, etc.).

On the other hand, "didactic engineering" (DE) was introduced in the French Didactic of Mathematics in the early 80s to describe a research approach in mathematics education comparable to an engineer's work. Since its origin, didactic engineering was fundamentally connected to educational interventions (experiments) in classrooms, usually sequences of lessons. These experiences were guided by and tried to test some theoretical ideas. That is, DE is conceived as the design and evaluation of theoretically justified sequences of mathematical teaching, with the intention of triggering the emergence of some educational phenomena, and developing teaching resources scientifically tested. DE is based on the theory of didactical situations [31,32] and involves the experimentation (classroom teaching interventions) and validation via a priori and posteriori analysis. In this manuscript, a combination of DBR with DE (which have common terms, as stated in literature [33,34]) is used.

#### *3.2. Participants and SAMPLING*

By the year 2018, a group of five cooperating students voluntarily conform a mentored "designer team" (supervised by the authors of this manuscript). Such a team should act in coordination with different primary education schools (CEIPs) of the province. In the 2017/18 academic year, three different CEIPs were interested in the implementation of EERs. However, the demand highly increased in 2019 and the project was expanded to interact with conventional courses, so more students could cooperate on the initiative. This project is being developed at the University of Cadiz. Students belong to the "Primary education degree" and have a mean age of 21 years. Two lines are actually being developed:

Figure 2 summarizes the procedure and methodologies used in line 1, emphasizing the use of the results provided by this line to ease real didactic situations that are used in conventional lectures with students. As presented in Figure 2, implementation of the designed EER occurs after a co-design phase, while service-learning stages are present at the beginning and the end of each cycle.

**Figure 2.** Schematic of the two research lines in the project. Line 1 focuses on the co-design of Educational Escape Rooms as a way to expand didactic-mathematic knowledge, as well as to establish connections via curricular integration methodologies. Implementation of the designed educational escape room (EER) occurs after a co-design phase, while service-learning stages are present at the beginning and the end of each cycle.

> While the co-design of the EERs is carried out by a group of five cooperating students, the designed experiences are implemented in different schools of the province (to date, seven CEIPs have been cooperating with the project), so more than 200 schoolchildren have already participated in the project. The transcribed experiences are then used to carry the didactic analysis and to develop curricular elements/professional competencies of the students participating in line 2. Summarizing, to date:

The presented EER was co-designed by one of the five cooperating students, as a previous step of her final career work, let us label her as "cooperating student #4" (CS#4). She participated in designing EERs (as part of the first stage of the 2-year cooperation) prior to designing a whole EER by herself. The experience of this student takes the authors' attention due to her initial bad emotional relation with the mathematics discipline, while exhibiting high performance in other areas. Knowing her math-phobia, this student requested to be incorporated in the group of cooperating students as a way to go further in her didactic-mathematical knowledge. Researchers seized the opportunity to connect her fears (the mathematics) with her passions (the music).

CS#4 started developing EER tasks as part of the "designer team", following the conventional cycle proposed in Figure 2 for research line 1. She had the opportunity to implement a team-designed EER during the first year of cooperation (prior to the 2020 pandemic situation). CS#4 had completed her conventional didactic-mathematic formation available in the "primary education degree", so she was familiar with the design criteria, [27] as well as the didactic situations theory [35]. Her goal was to establish connections among the mathematic and musical knowledge in the frame of an EER, so that the narrative and tasks contained concepts, procedures, strategies, and skills from both disciplines. This report focused on CS#4 achievements due to the limited extension of the manuscript. However, achievements of the complete "designer team" are also briefly presented and discussed.

#### *3.3. Design Guidelines*

Some educational escape rooms design guidelines are available in literature [36,37], lacking, in some cases, scientific references supporting such guidelines. The literature has plenty of "false" escape rooms [38,39]: Players are accompanied by the teacher or the escape room experience is reduced to an "opening a box" in a conventional lecture. Indeed, in such kind of approaches, players do not have to escape from any room. Educational escape rooms are yet in an emergent situation, so there is still some misinformation and confusion.

#### 3.3.1. EER Design Criteria

The previously described situation sets the point to establish specific criteria for defining "what an educational escape room is". In this regard, design criteria were established by the authors as presented in [27], so that students can apply such criteria when designing their proposals. Design criteria can be summarized as follows:

Most of these criteria are coincident with traditional parameters used for designing and scheduling conventional educational situations [42].

#### 3.3.2. EER Experience Analysis Model

As part of the formative process, students are committed to carrying a didactic analysis of the implemented experiences. Didactic analysis is a common term used in didactic of the mathematics' research and includes a set of concepts and methods widely used by research groups, highlighting conceptual and procedural aspects [43]. In this project, a validated model created by Font [44] has been used. However, such a model was designed to perform the mathematic education practice analysis, while the experience proposed by the student aims to be curricularly integrated. This implies that Font's model was to be "expanded" to cover the range of music-related practices. Such "expanded model" was co-designed by the student CS#4 in touch with the multi-disciplinary team of researchers in charge (authors of this manuscript). The resulting model is briefly presented as a result in the present contribution.

#### *3.4. Evaluation: Tracking Students' Learning Process*

Evaluation is an essential part of every learning-teaching process. When considering how to evaluate students, one has to realize that different evaluation tools should provide different information [45]. Therefore, researchers designed a sequence of tasks, deliverables, and evaluation tools to assess students' performance. For example, to track the students' learning process, face-to-face and online meetings were scheduled. Furthermore, deliverables were required as part of the students' practice interaction with schools:

In parallel, students were co-designing the EERs according to the documented schoolchildren's difficulties. The design of the EER was tracked by meetings and interviews with the researcher, so that the creative process was not interrupted but boosted by new ideas. That is, the evaluation is conceived here as a way to support students in their creative look for didactic-mathematical knowledge [46]. The different evaluation tools, tasks, and learning goals are summarized in Table 1.

**Table 1.** Deliverables and evaluation tools used in this research.

#### **4. Results and Discussion**

While the co-design of the EERs is carried out by a group of five cooperating students, the designed experiences are implemented in different schools of the province (additional information on the characteristics of the sample is provided in Section 3.2). The proposed experience [47] was co-designed to be implemented in a specific school with a medium-low social-cultural and economic level. All activities were designed to fit the sixth academic course of the Spanish Primary Education curricula, as well as to fit the psychological characteristics of students aged between 11–12 years. The whole escape room experience was designed to be autonomously accomplished in 45 min. Mathematical tasks of the presented experience were designed to connect spatial orientation, spatial quantification, maps' interpretation, problem-solving skills, and mathematical reasoning. Mathematical tasks were designed to fully connect with music-related concepts such as active audition, timbral source recognition, and music style recognition. Finally, the proposal was designed to be solved by heterogeneous groups of 4–5 schoolchildren and to mobilize contents and skills from different academic fields: Mathematics (logic, arithmetic, geometry, and spatial orientation) and music (active listening, audio-visual timbre identification, and musical genres).

#### *4.1. Result 1: Adapting the Original Didactic Analysis Model*

As a service-learning approach, the "analysis of the situation" and difficulties reported by CEIPs set the starting point of the experience (see Figure 2). Since students have to reply to the CEIP-reported difficulties, the following research questions emerge: Can an educational escape room be used to work music and mathematic knowledge? How can music and mathematics didactic situations be analyzed? To provide the initial literature, students are initiated in Font's model [44], applying such a model to analyze pure mathematic didactic situations. Once the students became familiar with the original model, they were invited to propose slight modifications to be introduced in the model (so that it covers a music-mathematical analysis). In this section, we present the adaptation of the original Font's model co-designed by CS#4 and the authors.

#### 4.1.1. Identification of Musical and Mathematical Practices

This level of analysis focuses on actions with different natures (discursive, operative, etc.) that schoolchild-players have to do in order to solve the situation-problem. As the problem in the EER belongs to different branches of knowledge, the analysis of the implemented experience should differentiate musical practices from mathematics. However, when involving students in situations of curricular integration problems, it may happen that the practices developed coincide in form, not in content.

#### 4.1.2. Knowledge and Practice

In Font's model, it is clear that students have to mobilize mathematical concepts and skills which enable a proper interpretation of the obtained results. Therefore, the language used as well as the procedures and arguments (as a fundamental part of the mathematic reasoning) have to be analyzed.

Taking the literature as a reference [48,49], music-related declarative and procedural knowledge ("knowing that" vs. "knowing how") should be included in this level, due to its similarity with the original design of the model [50]. "Knowing music" involves both, the assimilation of contents (facts, propositions, theoretical systems, etc.) and the development of specific skills (such as audition, interpretation, and creation [48]). Musical declarative knowledge should be meaningfully connected to the proposed situation-problem. On the other hand, a proper analysis of the musical procedural knowledge should contemplate:

#### 4.1.3. Interactions and Conflicts

The treatment of the interactions produced during the problem-solving process must be analyzed [44]. The different activities which compose the whole EER should motivate the communication among the participants. Such communication might involve different parameters, such as cognitive, epistemic, interactional, etc.

#### 4.1.4. Norms

This level of analysis involves the creation of norms and generalities derived from the musical and mathematical practice.

#### *4.2. Discussion 1: Towards a Curricular Integration Analysis Model*

Based on the co-design of the "expanded didactic analysis model" and as a consequence of the multi-disciplinary research team co-authoring this manuscript, the need for a concretion of the indicators which are mobilized in a curricular-integration proposal arises. Taking the previous work of J. Torres as a reference [16], we define the following indicators, which might be checked in order to validate a curricular integration proposal:

The previously mentioned items might be useful to establish and design a model to study curricular integration approaches. These items emerge as a consequence of the adaptation of Font's model [34] to fit with a curricular integration perspective. It can be concluded that the effort made by CS#4 has been fruitful not only from the formative point of view, but from the research output achieved. The similarity of the presented items with that of the original Font's model is a consequence of the common roots of the music and mathematical knowledge [53].

#### *4.3. Result 2: Extract of the Student's Proposal*

The complete and original proposal made by CS#4 is stored at RODIN [47], which is the institutional repository of Research and Learning Objects of our university. A translated, reduced version is available as supplementary material #1 for this manuscript. However, an extract of the proposal is presented here so a view of its formative potential (for both the student who was designing the proposal and the schoolchild playing the game) can be assessed.

The original proposal is composed of three "missions" to be accomplished by the players during a 45 min EER experience. As the complete experience could not be reproduced here, a view of one of the activities is presented. In this activity, players can use an audio-recorded message to deduce the path followed by a thief. The corresponding audio track is available as supplementary material #2 for this manuscript. Using the audio, the schoolchild should track the thief's path on a map (whose construction was the final activity of the previous mission). Once the path is drawn on the map, a combination of

directions arises. Such a combination shall be coded in "arrows" and the code shall be introduced in a padlock to proceed to the next activity (see Figure 3).

**Figure 3.** Extract of the student's proposal. This figure corresponds to the clue (**a**) that should be used to solve a problem combining a map (**b**) and an audio source (Supplementary Material #2). By listening to the audio, students should track the path of a thief in the provided map. The translation of such path to "directional arrows" could be then introduced on the directional padlock, opening the next mission of the EER. Directional arrows which code the mentioned path are superimposed to the original map (white arrows, not provided by the student-player).

#### *4.4. Discussion 2: Didactic Suitability of the Proposal*

In the particular case of an EER, the curricular content as well as the tools, guides, and supports have to fit with the specific characteristics of the course and school (in order to preserve the flow state). Furthermore, other key elements should be considered when analyzing the didactic suitability of a proposal. In this section, a didactic suitability analysis of the student's proposal is carried out, according to literature [50].

#### 4.4.1. Epistemic Suitability

Epistemic suitability aims to evaluate the implementation of institutional knowledge. From the point of view of the mathematic-related competencies, knowledge and mathematical procedures mobilized on the EER shall be considered "good mathematics" (which is useful in daily life). We consider that this item is fulfilled due to the agreement with the on-service teachers of the school. Indeed, the curricular topic (spatial-related knowledge and spatial orientation) was specifically chosen for its direct application. Concerning the music-related competencies, the knowledge and procedures mobilized in the EER refer to the active audition of sound fragments, as well as to the visual and timbral-auditory identification of different musical instruments. The latter means a concrete curricular application focused on the musical experience, an approach that should be meaningful for the students' integral development.

#### 4.4.2. Cognitive Suitability

The way in which the activities are distributed throughout the formative process is also an item to be considered on the assessment of the didactic suitability of a proposal. The designed proposal was developed in the frame of a conventional course and in agreement with the CEIP, so that the knowledge to be used in the room should be at a reasonable distance to what the students already knew. This is to ensure that cognitive conflicts, induced by cognitive limitations right in the moment of the experience, are overcome through experimentation and peer-to-peer discussion.

In the particular case of mathematic concepts mobilized in this proposal, the concepts are well fitting to those presented in literature [54], as part of the NTCM standards [41]. In the particular case in this proposal, the mathematic concepts can be listed as: Itinerary description and coding, itinerary building and interpretation, describing positions and displacements, representing positions and displacements in maps, etc. Musical concepts mobilized in this proposal fit well with the established standards, being interrelated with the mathematic concepts. Such interrelation is concreted in the active audition and the fragmented sound story which contributes to the identification of the itinerary. To build the corresponding itinerary, musical instrument timbral differentiation and different musical style fragments are correlated to the different locations and displacements annotated on the schematic map.

#### 4.4.3. Media Suitability

Here, the grade of adequacy of the materials and tools provided is discussed. In the proposed experience, the audio, speaker, paper, pencil, maps, padlock, radio communication, etc. are provided to the student-players. Such resources may help solve the problem by applying different strategies. Concerning the use of the tools, from a mathematic point of view, the provided resources ease the establishment of the code by providing a "squared pattern" on the map (see Figure 3b), which clarifies the possible paths, locations, and displacements. However, there are some aspects which may induce confusion. Particularly, the moment in which each "turn to the left/right" has to be made, may induce some confusions (see Figure 4). To solve this, a token/model of the thief could be provided, fixing its original position so that no mistakes on the final code are induced (note that both final codes are similar, differing on the starting position). Therefore, extrinsic difficulties could be presented on the experience, induced by the misinterpretation of the provided tools.

**Figure 4.** Two possible answers for the proposed activity (Figure 3). Solution (**a**) will open the padlock, while solution (**b**) will be considered as a wrong answer. (**c**) Shows the different codes obtained.

Concerning the musical resources used in the proposal, students would use a speaker to listen to the sound-story. Auditory and visual tools (which are the speaker and schematic maps) should provide enough support to solve the activity. The provided sound story can be reproduced on demand. Again, there is a complementary music-to-mathematics relation so that auditory and visual tools are meaningfully connected.

#### 4.4.4. Interactional Suitability

Interactional suitability is the grade in which the activity allows identifying and solving semiotic conflicts by negotiating meanings. The presented proposal aims for peerto- peer discussions since the experience is designed for five simultaneous players, which should negotiate mathematical terms such as "left", "right", "turn over", "in front of" or "advance". Relative positions and displacements must be coded in order to accomplish the activity, so the different perspectives of the map may induce discussions among players. This would require a negotiation about "which one is the right perspective" in order to reach a consensus on the code to be introduced on the padlock.

In the proposed EER, musical aspects are fully related and connected to the mathematical aspects. The EER requires the recognition of sound sequences in the sound story which determines the displacements in the schematic map in Figure 3 (the appropriate sequence of sounds-displacements will provide the code to the next activity of the EER). The potential interactional conflicts should be addressed by negotiation and discussion in a way that evidences auditory skills and the musical background of the students as a fundamental part of the activity, which are needed to accomplish the mission.

#### 4.4.5. Emotional Suitability

The grade of motivation and interest of the students during the formative process should also be assessed. We consider that the proposed experience has an optimum degree of emotional suitability due to the originality of the proposal, the multi-disciplinary approach, and the game-based-learning perspective. However, as no implementation of the proposal was possible (due to the COVID-19 pandemic), this item could not be properly assessed. Even so, previous experiences designed and implemented by students in the frame of the mentoring program [27] provide enough evidence of meaningful emotional suitability of EERs.

#### 4.4.6. Ecologic Suitability

Finally, the grade of fitting of the experience to the educational project of the school should also be considered. In this regard, we consider that ecologic suitability is quite appropriate since the topic, concepts, tools, and moment of implementation were negotiated with the on-service teacher due to the co-design approach.

#### *4.5. Professional Development Analysis*

A brief analysis of the professional development reached by CS#4 during the experience is presented in this section. The "16 roles model" [55] (which is based on the discussion presented by Azcárate in literature [56]) is used here to perform the analysis. Of course, there are deeper and more complex models (such as MTSK model [57], for example). However, such models are approachless for those not specifically instructed on the model. The selected model was chosen for its simplicity, comprehensibility, and accessibility (even for non-specialized researchers), while being a validated model useful for the research in didactic of the mathematics. The selected model is schematically presented in Figure 5. According to the 16 role models, the presented experience fits with the 11 roles of the teacher, which means that the complete experience has mobilized several professional roles and skills:

**Figure 5.** Role model used to analyze the professional development in this study. Roles mobilized during the experience have been filled in green.

The previously described roles are strongly related with the development of professional competencies, which are developed by integrating and transforming the knowledge acquired during professional experiences, solving real problems, and mobilizing didacticprofessional knowledge (according to literature [58], see schematic in Figure 6).

**Figure 6.** Schematic of the elaboration of "practice" professional knowledge (adapted from [53]).

Students develop different professional competencies depending on the moment of the experience: (i) Professional competencies needed while implementing EERs:

Additionally, (ii) professional competencies needed while developing EERs:

#### *4.6. CS#4 Achievements: A Love-Hate Tale*

While we have presented several data concerning the whole students' "designer team", this manuscript focuses on the formative process of one of the students (CS#4) due to her initial "math-phobia". To provide evidences of the evolution on the perceptions of CS#4, Table 2 summarizes some answers to questionnaires. Such questionnaires were provided to CS#4 prior to the delivery of the core didactic of the mathematic subjects of the conventional curriculum and once the core subjects and additional "specific formation" was delivered. Meaningful changes in the perception of this student are evidenced. Particularly, her vision of the mathematic knowledge seems to have evolved from an algorithmic-centered perspective to a perspective where reasoning, strategy development, and hypothesis/discussion dynamics are much more relevant. Comparing the responses "before and after" the whole experience is delivered, we observe that:

• CS#4 relation with the mathematical discipline is meaningfully improved (her rating rises from 2 to 4).

We can summarize that, while some insecurities still remain (concerning her perceived ability to conduct mathematical lessons), connections to other subjects and areas are more relevant for her, so that the experience seems to have fostered her capacity to "identify mathematical knowledge" in a wide variety of situations.

On the other hand, her perception about the applicability of mathematical knowledge has gained some relevance, making emphasis on connections among curricular areas and application of the knowledge in real-life scenarios.

**Table 2.** Extract of questionnaires provided to cooperating student #4 (CS#4) and a comparison of her responses with other students before and after the experience.

**Table 2.** *Cont.*

## *4.7. Students' Achievents: Educational Goals*

The whole group of students was invited to develop their final degree thesis to complete the whole formative experience. This was a challenge for most of these students. Indeed, the participant students perceive the mentoring program as an opportunity to improve their mathematical skills, but most of them felt some anxiety with the idea of developing the final degree thesis focusing on the mathematical knowledge. The final degree thesis should consist of a 50–60-page document summarizing their experience, showing the theoretical background and evidencing a learning process. Furthermore, it should be defended on a committee and was mandatory to obtain the teacher's degree. Figure 7 shows a radar plot of the evaluation of professional skills corresponding to all the participant students. Professional didactic-mathematical knowledge was evaluated using the tools and tasks presented in Table 1. To the authors' consideration, the final degree thesis committee reports are a key aspect fact to be considered for the evaluation of the performance of the whole experience, thus it is included in Figure 7.

**Figure 7.** Radar plot of the evaluation of professional didactic-mathematical knowledge and final degree thesis score of the participant students. The CS#4 plot is filled in green to highlight her specific performance.

Examining Figure 7, it can be observed that students succeed on all of the items related to mathematical knowledge. Concerning the didactic knowledge, some students still fail in identifying and managing the schoolchildren difficulties. While the size of the sample is too small to provide fully reliable conclusions, Table 2 and Figure 7 provide enough evidences of a positive evolution on both: Didactic and mathematical knowledge of participant students.

	- Conceptual understanding aims to check the global domain of the different mathematical concepts and its different interpretations. This is what is conventionally said to "know mathematics" in its most traditional way. Data presented in Figure 7 show that all students are presenting good/very good conceptual understanding.
	- Procedural fluency is related to the ability to efficiently use the mathematical concepts, regarding the precision and flexibility. Figure 7 shows meaningful differences among students, which can be explained by a different level of mathematical practice.
	- Strategies development is another item which shows meaningful differences among students. This item is related to the ability to identify a variety of perspectives to solve a problem, which should lead to the choice of an optimum and viable strategy. Most of the students still show a wide margin for improvement in this field.
	- The ability to connect mathematical knowledge to real-life situations is taken into account in the "connectivity" item. This item is particularly important in a curricular integration approach. It can be observed that all the participant students' score above 5/10, but some students still show limited ability to re-contextualize the mathematical knowledge.
	- The ability to identify and manage schoolchildren's difficulties is closely related to students' self-abilities to overcome their own difficulties. This may explain the obtained result, with two groups of students clearly differenced. While students 3–4-5 show a remarkable ability in this field, students 1–2 fail in identifying schoolchildren's difficulties, which is coherent with the results obtained in the "mathematical knowledge" evaluation.
	- Context fitting and didactic transpositions are key professional skills. Teaching has to be adapted to the specific knowledge of the learner. Indeed, teachers should explore the previous ideas of the schoolchildren prior to the design of a lesson. In our experience, students' ability to fit to the context could be considered as "good" for all participants.
	- Classroom management skill is the best scored skill in average. It is related to the ability to manage conflicts, structure schoolchildren, and coordinate the learning process in a learning-teaching experience.
	- Design and scheduling ability is related to the "context fitting ability", since no good design can be performed without context. Scheduling a proper sequence of problems or ideas (even in a 45-min escape room) is a key aspect to be considered. Figure 7 evidences that, while all students score above 5/10, there is still some margin to improve.

This result supports the usefulness of the mentoring program, evidencing that additional and specific didactic-mathematical education may help change the situation exposed in the Introduction (see Figure 1). Finally, authors would like to emphasize that the evolu-

tion of the five cooperating students was made by annotations, questionnaires, interviews, and deliverables: These items could not be attached to this manuscript (they are handwritten and/or presented in Spanish language). However, relevant evaluation notes are presented in Table 2 and Figure 7.

#### **5. Conclusions**

This manuscript presents and analyzes an extract of a proposal made by one student (a trainee teacher which was part of a five-member group). Such a proposal was designed in the frame of a mentoring program, whose aim was to explore the influence of a specific and additional formation on didactic and mathematical knowledge. Our approach was to "work mathematical concepts based on other curricular disciplines", so that students could use their "favorite topics" to expand their didactic and mathematical knowledge.

As teachers and researchers, the authors' aim was to establish a problem-basedlearning approach by applying gamification strategies. Previous results [27] indicate that educational escape rooms can be used to foster cooperation, motivation, and exploration, thus becoming an optimum tool for working mathematic-related content. Therefore, students were invited to design (in cooperation with different schools) educational escape rooms, covering curricular aspects. A co-design strategy with a service-learning perspective allows fitting the escape room design to the real needs of the schoolchild, also stimulating the implication of the participant students in the process.

This study focuses on the formative potential of "co-designing educational escape rooms in a service-learning perspective", evidencing the mobilization of professional skills and knowledge and showing a boost on the importance attributed to "reasoning", "development strategies", and other mathematic-related skills, which were previously perceived as secondary skills when considering the importance of "using algorithms". Furthermore, the mentoring program has been proven as useful for developing students' professional didactic-mathematical knowledge.

Analyzing our original objectives, we consider that: (i) The experience stimulates the capacity to use mathematic knowledge in non-conventional contexts, (ii) the student shows a positive evolution in their relation with the mathematic knowledge, and (iii) mathematical competencies have been meaningfully connected to other disciplines in the frame of an integrated curriculum approach. Therefore, we consider that educational escape rooms are suitable tools to build problem-based situations with an integral curriculum perspective. We also consider that co-designing educational escape rooms fosters the development of trainee teachers' professional skills, mobilizing specific professional didactic-mathematical knowledge.

On the other hand, during the experience accumulated experience (considering the presented manuscript and previously published experiences [27]), we have detected three main obstacles to overcome in order to develop/apply EER. The first is to establish a clear narrative with a strong relation to the problems presented in the EER, so that all activities are narratively connected in a meaningful way. The second is to create connections among subjects, promoting an integrated view of the knowledge. In addition, the third is the design of real and meaningful problems which requires reasoning, experimentation, argumentation, and calculation, overcoming the pen-paper based activities.

During the experience, key didactic-mathematical professional skills were evaluated. In doing so, we have detected specific skills whose development requires special attention in future editions of the mentoring program. Thanks to this perspective, we have detected that the key competencies mobilized by the students during the development process were: (i) Meeting the curriculum, (ii) understanding the basic principles and fundamental laws of the experimental, social, and exact sciences, (iii) developing and evaluating appropriate teaching resources able to promote the acquisition of basic skills in students, (iv) developing problem-solving skills, and (v) establishing connections among subjects and developing a problem-solving perspective strongly related to real problems.

Finally, the 2020 pandemic scenario prevents us from implementing this specific experience. However, other EER experiences have been implemented in the frame of the mentoring program. As a result, we consider that the key competencies mobilized during the application of an EER experience are: (i) Meet and promote interaction processes, cooperation strategies, and team-working, (ii) promote educational and scientific values (for an active and democratic citizenship), fostering the democratic education of citizens and the practice of critical social thinking, (iii) identify, report, and collaborate in the treatment of learning difficulties by identifying and planning the resolution of educational situations that affect students with different abilities and different learning rates, (iv) evaluate the curriculum content and teaching resources and its influence in the promotion of basic skills in students, and (v) communicative and interactional skills.

Future editions of the mentoring program should emphasize on developing specific students' skills. Particularly procedural fluency, strategies development, identification of difficulties, and problem design are skills to be specifically attended. We consider that designing and implementing educational, integrated, problem-based escape rooms constitutes an optimum procedure to expand students' competencies, as well as to explore didactic/mathematic knowledge in a meaningful way. Furthermore, this procedure allows students to explore and grow over their own limitations, while providing a service to local schools.

**Supplementary Materials:** The following are available online at https://www.mdpi.com/2227-710 2/11/3/131/s1.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, J.C.P.C.; Methodology, J.C.P.C. and P.O.G.; Validation, J.C.P.C. and S.R.G.; Formal Analysis, J.C.P.C.; Investigation, J.C.P.C. and P.O.G.; Resources, P.O.G.; Data Curation, J.C.P.C.; Writing—Original Draft Preparation, J.C.P.C.; Writing—Review & Editing, J.C.P.C.; Visualization, J.C.P.C.; Supervision, J.C.P.C. and S.R.G.; Project Administration, J.C.P.C.; Funding Acquisition, J.C.P.C. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research was funded by the grants sol-201900138517-tra of the "2019/20 Teaching innovation projects" of the Cádiz University, and PR2017-013 of the "2017–18 Program to promote and boost research and transfer of the Cadiz University".

**Institutional Review Board Statement:** All subjects gave their informed consent for inclusion before they participated in the study. Private information (which could be used to identify the participants) is not included in this document. This study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki, and the protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee of the GAMIMAT project.

**Informed Consent Statement:** Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study.

**Data Availability Statement:** Additional supporting data analyzed or generated during the study can be found in: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/10/9/213 (accessed on 16 March 2021).

**Acknowledgments:** The authors would like to thank the help and collaboration of Pilar Azcárate Goded and José María Cardeñoso Domingo. We would also like to thank the cooperating students: Ana Ruiz, Claudia Macías, Daniel García, and Antonio García. Finally, this experience would not be possible without the collaboration of the CEIPs of the province of Cádiz (particularly that of the CEIP San Juan de Rivera).

**Conflicts of Interest:** The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.

#### **References**

## *Review* **Escape Rooms in STEM Teaching and Learning—Prospective Field or Declining Trend? A Literature Review**

**Chantal Lathwesen and Nadja Belova \***

Department of Chemistry Education, University of Bremen, 28359 Bremen, Germany<EMAIL_ADDRESS>
**\*** Correspondence<EMAIL_ADDRESS>
**Abstract:** In the last decade, game-based learning has received growing attention in educational contexts in general and science education in particular. A recent game trend, which has also found its way into STEM classrooms, is escape rooms. In this type of game, players have to work through several puzzles to achieve a specific goal (mostly to escape from an actual room). We conducted a systematic literature review to find out whether the "market" for such games is already saturated or if there is still potential for further development. After searching the common databases (ERIC, Web of Science, and Google Scholar, as well as the German database FIS Bildung), we analyzed 93 journal articles, book chapters, and conference papers in English and German from the following domains: chemistry, physics, biology, mathematics, computer science, general science (interdisciplinary), environmental science, and medicine. We selected the ones that targeted a specific educational level (primary, secondary or tertiary education) and were designed for formal educational settings. It transpired that there is a need for more easily adaptable escape rooms as well as for more empirical evidence on their actual effects.

**Keywords:** gamification; escape room; review

#### **1. Introduction**

Gaming is a universal phenomenon. Baby animals and human children play games in which they test and get to know their bodies and the surrounding world. They play just for the sake of playing—without knowing anything about the game's features or effects. The concept of playing is a fundamental part of human activity and can be found in various forms in all cultures and societies around the world [1]. When it comes to the effects of playing, prominent psychologists and educational researchers such as Montessori and Piaget have acknowledged the value of playing for the development of children over hundreds of years [2]. Vygotsky (1980) described games as providing opportunities for children to experience scenarios they are not yet able to live through in real life [3]. Thus, the importance of games for one's development has led to the inclusion of game-based settings for learning purposes [4] both in lower and upper secondary as well as in higher education. When studying the extensive literature on gamification and game-based learning it becomes obvious that the educational goals described in the literature are quite diverse, ranging from the promotion of content knowledge over motivation towards fostering collaboration and argumentation skills [5]. On the other hand, the evidence on actual learning outcomes fostered by games remains quite inconsistent [6]. Nevertheless, there undoubtedly are positive effects of educational games, such as an increase of motivation, as well as some quality criteria which can help to create games which are not only entertaining but also promote specific educational goals [7].

The literature indicates that game-based learning has received increasing attention some researchers even consider educational games to be one of the biggest "hypes" of the last decade in the educational context [8] (p. 5). Game-based learning (GBL) [9] embraces activities which employ game mechanics for learning purposes, which leads us to the

**Citation:** Lathwesen, C.; Belova, N. Escape Rooms in STEM Teaching and Learning—Prospective Field or Declining Trend? A Literature Review. *Educ. Sci.* **2021**, *11*, 308. https://doi.org/10.3390/ educsci11060308

Academic Editors: José Carlos Piñero Charlo, María Teresa Costado Dios, Enrique Carmona Medeiro and Fernando Lloret

Received: 28 May 2021 Accepted: 16 June 2021 Published: 21 June 2021

**Publisher's Note:** MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

**Copyright:** © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).

concept of gamification. Gamification is commonly defined as the changing of processes that are not games through the implementation of a game or at least elements of one [10]. Here, game mechanics are explicitly used to follow concrete educational goals and solve specific problems [4].

Commonly mentioned elements for gamification in learning and education are story, dynamics, mechanics, collaboration, goal-oriented design, a set of rules, and technology [4,11] some of these are mostly applicable to digital games. However, this does not mean that specific elements *must* be used for gamification in learning and education, and using many gamification elements does not ensure more effective gamification or better results [12]. The challenge for educators is to choose necessary gamification elements to create an integrated solution that facilitates learning and education [4]. Based on the research findings available so far, Tsekleves et al., (2016) as well as Kim et al., (2018) developed several quality criteria that educational games should possess to increase the likelihood of motivational as well as educational outcomes. Games in educational frameworks should, among other things, be aligned with the curriculum, have clear learning goals like progression or repetition, be interactive, and contain aspects which can be used for assessment and feedback purposes thus allowing students to check their own progress [4,7].

Whoever plays steps out of their everyday experience and in a sense overrides it to immerse themselves in a game world. This phenomenon is addressed in the concept of the "flow theory" [13]. Here, the state of "flow" is described as a total absorption by a task which is both challenging and enjoyable. Such a totally immersive recent game trend is the so-called escape room. Escape rooms are a relatively new game concept that has been gaining popularity since around 2012 [14]. According to Nicholson (2015), an escape room is a physical adventure game in which the players have to work through various puzzles and tasks in a collaborative manner in order to achieve an overarching goal within a certain time limit [14]. Usually this consists of escaping from one or more rooms. Alternatively, the players must complete a specific task as part of the respective story, such as solving a criminal case or finding a hidden treasure. Before the game begins, the game master informs the players about the rules, the safety instructions, the general process, and the goal of the escape room. If there is a background story, the game master introduces the participants to the game, for example by reading an old diary entry. Then the door of the room is locked and the timer is started. Within the time limit, the players must use the objects they have discovered and decipher clues to solve the puzzles in order to advance in the game. During this time, the game master only acts as an observer and can provide assistance to the group if necessary. The game ends when the time runs out or the group has reached the goal. Over the course of the last decade, the game concept has been constantly further developed, characterized by an increase in the diversity of puzzles, a stronger integration of the story, thematically and technically more complex room design and, more recently, an increase in digitization [15,16]. In addition to physical escape rooms, due to their increasing popularity and the needs of different areas of application, other formats have been developed, including escape books, breakout boxes or home kits, augmented reality or virtual reality escape rooms, and digital escape games [17].

An integral part of escape rooms are puzzles. In commercial escape rooms, a distinction is made between two different types of puzzles: mental and physical puzzles [16]. To solve the first, clues must be discovered, deciphered, and related to each other. This requires cognitive skills and logical thinking. The counterpart to this are physical puzzles or tasks in which real objects or parts of the room have to be moved to find the solution. They are more time-consuming and represent cognitive relief. Both types of puzzles are also used in combination. Despite the variety of possible puzzles, three basic structural components can be identified: a problem, a hidden solution, and a reward [16]. To receive the reward, players must first decipher the puzzle and complete the resulting challenge. Often the solution is already hidden in the puzzle itself. The reward may include new puzzle pieces, clues or objects.

Educational escape rooms represent a creative learning environment that combines formal and informal learning. The game concept is adopted, adapted to the needs of the target group, and linked to the required content-related and process-related skills. Educational escape rooms can be developed for all levels of educational institutions and for a wide variety of topics [18]. One of the primary goals of educational escape rooms is the playful learning of new subject matter and skills as well as the repetition, deepening, and transfer of existing knowledge. In addition, the students are made aware of the effects of their own behavior on themselves and others. Self-confidence, social interaction, and the appreciation of different perspectives are also strengthened [19]. In contrast to the regular tasks of the students, the puzzles in an educational escape room do not contain a directly visible work assignment. This is only implied and must first be developed by the learner with the help of the information [14], representing probably the biggest challenge both for students and teachers (who must step out of their comfort zone to allow such totally open settings). A school implementation of educational escape rooms requires an adaptation of the game concept due to the spatial conditions and the size of the learning group [14]. In contrast to commercial escape rooms, their school equivalent consists in 78.9% of cases of only one room [17]. Consequently, the objects placed in it must be clearly differentiated from the other objects in the room for the pupils, for example by marking them with a logo [20]. Due to the spatial and financial resources of the schools, educational escape rooms should be cost-efficient and spatially reversible, so that the thematic design of the room can only take place in a reduced form [21]. Educational escape rooms have great potential in the school context, regardless of the necessary modifications. The game concept is favored equally by both sexes, takes different learning styles into account, and is particularly suitable for interdisciplinary learning [14]. It is also a motivating, student-centered teaching method in which learners take responsibility for their own learning process. Teachers take on an observing role during the game as a game master. They may only provide support to a certain extent upon request from the pupils. This gives learners the opportunity to independently develop their own ideas, strategies, and solutions, to actively pursue them and, if necessary, to evaluate them. In addition, the pupils are encouraged to use their existing knowledge and skills in an unconventional way to solve the puzzles [19]. Such a student-active, playful approach promotes communication, collaboration, creativity, problem-solving skills, and critical thinking, and can have a positive influence on both the motivation and commitment of the students [16].

The game concept of the escape rooms has gained increasing popularity in the school context in general and in STEM education in particular in recent years. Hardly any science education journal has been without a corresponding article, and the topic has also been present at large international conferences. Thus, the following questions have arisen: what is the current status of the development of STEM-related escape rooms? Which goals do the escape rooms available so far pursue? For which educational levels as well as subjects are escape rooms mostly arranged? So far, no systematic reviews on this topic have been conducted. We analyzed the literature to answer these questions, identify research gaps, and shed light on whether the escape room hype can be considered outdated or whether there is still much to develop and to inquire.

#### **2. Materials and Methods**

We conducted literature database searches for the keywords "escape room", "exit game", "escape lab", "escape game", and "breakout" in combination with the STEM education domains science, chemistry, physics, mathematics, and biology education. The search was carried out using the Web of Science and ERIC database, as well as Google Scholar. The databases were selected purposefully. The Web of Science can be considered as the most scholarly based database only including quality journals that fulfill the criteria of being international, peer-reviewed, and recognized within the scientific community. ERIC is a database that also covers publications in education from other sources, like conferences. Google Scholar analyses all publications on the internet and ranks them according to a

certain algorithm which mainly depends on their popularity. With this search there is no proof of complete comprehensibility, but it is suggested that there is chance that most of the relevant publications in this topic can be found. We also searched the German database "FIS Bildung" with the same keywords in German which led to 17 hits. The relevant ones (only two in total) had already been found in the international databases due to the fact that they had an English abstract. Thus, this review is limited to publications in English and German. Hits resulting from the combinations of all the above-mentioned keywords totaled 67 in ERIC and 96 in the Web of Science. Google Scholar alone yielded about 2750 hits for the timeframe 2007 and 2021. The search was conducted within the last two weeks of February 2021.

The results of ERIC and the Web of Science were individually analyzed. Prior to this, we formulated inclusion and exclusion criteria for the relevant publications. The inclusion criteria were as follows: we included all versions of educational escape games (tabletop, analogue/digital, books), which took place in a formal educational setting or an informal educational setting with a clear educational objective targeting preschool, primary, secondary, or higher education. The papers all contained a clear description of the setting (content, target group, format, types of puzzles) and were aimed at STEM education (chemistry, biology, physics, math, computer science, health care, medical, nursing and natural sciences in general). We excluded escape games that did not target a specific education level, escape games for informal learning settings such as camps, libraries, or fairs, those without content knowledge goals or content related skills, as well as articles including the keywords in the wrong context (such as breakout rooms within videoconferencing tools). We did not have access to some publications, particularly those from teacher journals.

This led to a total of 37 relevant articles or book chapters. Sixteen additional publications were found by chain-referencing. The first 650 Google Scholar search results were also screened, resulting in 40 additional articles leading to a total of 93 articles making up the foundation of this review. The selected material was first classified according to general criteria: (i) educational domain (primary education, secondary education, tertiary education); and (ii) the topics covered (general science or a specific science/STEM subject such as medicine, chemistry, physics, biology or mathematics). Eight of the suggested settings were intended for primary education, 31 for secondary, and 58 for tertiary education (some of the papers were aimed at both secondary and tertiary levels). Table 1 shows the distribution among the domains. In a second round of categorization, the criteria chosen were learning objectives, theme, group size, format, organization of the puzzles, as well as the role of the teacher/instructor. The issue of reliability was approached by cross-checking of the coding among the authors. The examples selected for illustrating the analysis were chosen with respect to the type of publication: peer-reviewed articles in journals and books were given priority to other types of publications.

**Table 1.** Overview of the domains of the reviewed escape rooms (one of the publications was intended both for chemistry and physics lessons).

#### **3. Results of Educational Escape Rooms in STEM Education**

The first very noticeable result of our research was the large number of publications in the field of medicine (see Table 1). Escape rooms seem to be very common especially for the academic training of nurses. When it comes to the STEM domains, most of the examples were found for chemistry education, followed by mathematics and physics. The majority of the suggested games were intended for a collaborative approach with the students being divided into groups (ranging from two to ten people with the average being five students).

Thus, most of the games could be adopted in different class sizes. Only very few settings were aimed at single players. The play time ranged from 15 min to an entire day, with the average duration being 60 min. Analog settings prevail over solely digital ones: 12 chemistry, 2 biology, 1 general science, and all 6 physics escape games included experiments or lab-based activities. Few of the games only involved the simulation experiments in a digital learning environment. Only one escape lab was found. Nearly all escape rooms related to nursing, pharmacy, or medicine were designed as a simulation laboratory, where participants needed to apply lab and clinical skills in a realistic setting. When it came to the types of puzzles involved, crossword puzzles, mathematical tasks, and patterns were often used. The locks were mostly alphabetical or used numbers. The Supplementary Materials for this paper contain a table summarizing the main features of each escape room (e.g., types and number of puzzles, number of players, duration, domain, etc.).

#### *3.1. Educational Escape Rooms in Chemistry Education*

As already mentioned, a total of 15 publications were found dealing with escape rooms in secondary and tertiary chemistry education. Only seven of the papers targeted a specific topic and not a combination of several ones. The topics addressed were safety practices in the lab [22], structures and traits of polymers [23], the periodic table [24], the Leblanc process [25], chemical bonding [26], the galvanic cell [27], and the Solvay process [28]. The breakout activity by Nephew and Sunasee (2021) was created for academic institutions in order to make the obligatory safety training more interactive and engaging [22]. The goal of the activity is to open an actual box with three locks. The locks have to be opened using two different codes (numeric and alphabetic) and a key which is hidden in the laboratory. To open the locks, the participants must fulfill three hands-on activities: spill training, emergency response training, as well as waste disposal. In the first activity the players must come up with an order of contents of a spill kit to get rid of a reagent spill. Each content has an assigned letter which in the end makes up the code. This is generally a very common puzzle type for educational escape rooms. The puzzle on emergency response uses fluorescent clue numbers for which you need a black light flashlight to unveil them such little "playful" elements are also frequently used to make a setting more motivating and challenging. In the escape room on chemical bonding by Ang, Ng and Liew (2020) the first-year general chemistry students had to complete four puzzles (one group of students per puzzle) and a final collaborative puzzle at the end. Each group had to unveil a number for the combination lock. In one of the puzzles, the students had to compare the strengths of different bonds with the help of a model experiment using magnets with the strongest bond being the ionic one. Since "ionic" is spelled with five letters, the hidden number turns out to be five. A rather original idea and a different way of implementing the escape game context comes from Strippel, Schröder, and Sommer (2021) who constructed an escape box. The box is locked and can be opened by constructing a simple galvanic cell with a specific voltage. The voltmeter is connected to a microcomputer which controls the locking mechanism. As soon as the correct voltage is reached, the box is unlocked, and the reward can be retrieved [27].

Two escape rooms covered different aspects from a specific chemical sub-domain, namely analytical chemistry [29] and organic chemistry [30], with the first one being aimed at tertiary education. The setting by Groß and Schumacher (2020) covers main organic chemistry topics from the German secondary school curriculum (alcohols, aldehydes, carboxylic acids, coloring agents, esters) with one puzzle per topic. Thus, this experimental escape room setting can be used to review and consolidate the content knowledge. The context of this proposal is the kidnapping of a chemistry lecturer. The players are supposed to use his labor journal, which is also the structuring element of the game, to decipher the research, track down the kidnapper, and rescue the protagonist [30].

The remaining six proposals combined several thematic aspects from different domains of chemistry. Clapson et al., (2020) designed an escape game in a box format containing four hands-on activities on the following general chemistry topics: thin layer

chromatography, buoyancy, density, and a galvanic cell made out of zinc and copper [31]. For instance, in the activity on buoyancy, the learners compared the buoyancy of several pipettes in a plastic bottle filled with water. The correct order of the pipettes leads to a code that unlocks the next puzzle in the box. In the puzzle using a galvanic cell, the microscale cell is used to light up LEDs which are numbered. The numbers can then also be used for the lock. From our point of view, such scenarios can be difficult to adapt by other institutions due to the fact that the exact combination of these contents is needed.

#### *3.2. Educational Escape Rooms in Maths Education*

Out of the 13 publications, 7 targeted escape games in secondary math education, followed by primary (4) and tertiary (3). Escape games within the mathematical domain mainly fall into two subcategories: algebra [32] and geometry [33,34]. Algebra-themed escape games dealt with linear and quadratic equations [35], systems of equations [36], slope [37] and polynomials [38]. Geometry-themed escape games mainly addressed trigonometry [39], magnitudes and measurements [33,34,40]. The escape game of Arvanitaki and Skoumpourd (2019) is specially designed to teach students with visual impairment the concept of length [34]. To escape from the museum, they have to calculate and measure the distances between objects with their own steps and find specific measurement tools in the room. Movement and sense of touch are very important for understanding the concept of space and the properties and relationships of the objects in it. Therefore, the escape room is heavily dependent on physical tasks and uses a touchable roadmap and a SmartGuide obstacle detection device, so that students can navigate within the room. Additional topics addressed in the publications include logic [41], rational numbers [42] and calculus and cryptography [43]. Only one escape game does not specify its content-related learning objectives, saying it is based on the third grade curriculum [44]. Students take over the roles of investigators trying to unlock the case and disable the bomb. All teams have to work together and interact with veteran investigators, played by a group of parents. This collaborative approach is possible due to a multi-linear puzzle path, resulting in a meta-puzzle to unlock the bomb case. Small prizes and third grade certificates are handed out as rewards. An interdisciplinary approach can be found for two math escape games. Moura and Santos (2019) designed an analog escape game for the 7th grade combining the subdomain algebra with Portuguese literary work [32]. In "MathEscape", proposed by Galvas and Stascik (2017), students have to steal the solution of an old mathematical problem from the minister's office by solving 28 tasks. Nine tasks are non-mathematical, interdisciplinary tasks, such as mixing colors (arts), optic puzzles (physics), space orientation (physical education), comprehension (language), morse code (music), and using the periodic table (chemistry). In addition, mathematical tasks are used to revise and systemize knowledge about linear and quadratic equations. The research focuses on how the game enhances students' attitudes towards mathematics [35]. One digital and three hybrid math escape games were found, consisting of analog puzzles and digital locks [42], programmed puzzles and physical props [41], or augmented elements. Queiruga-Dios et al., (2020) designed an augmented, card-based escape game using the HP Reveal App to overlay specific images and objects [43]. When students scanned game items, they discovered videos, links, and other interactive elements. At the beginning a roadmap was given out, containing the game introductions, hint approach, puzzle path, and instructions. The goal is to stop a virus called WannaCry by unlocking the physical breakout box. For this, each color-coded group (blue, yellow, red, and green) had to solve three puzzles based on linear algebra, cryptography, or calculus. The second puzzle could only be solved if all groups worked together. An option to modify the game, so that the groups can compete against each other, is also given. Some escape games assign roles to the students in order to improve collaboration and structure the activity, e.g., resource manager, recorder/reporter, facilitator, or task manager [40,42]. This is mostly the case for primary or lower secondary escape games where self-organization within the groups may be more challenging for the learners. In most escape games that we reviewed hints are provided by the teacher in oral

form upon students' request. In some cases, hints are incorporated into the game materials in the form of clue cards [43], hintbooks [40] and hints in exchange [36]. Fuentes-Cabrera, Parra-González, López-Belmonte, and Segura-Robles (2020) designed a physical escape room with timed puzzles, meaning each puzzle had to be solved within a certain time limit [36]. If the time ran out before students solved the puzzle, they received a clue or a new puzzle. For each puzzle solved within the time limit students earned a badge, which they could exchange for a hint or extra points. The escape activity covers a whole teaching unit consisting of five linear puzzles. Puzzles, props, and clues were color-coded for each group, which seemed a great way to allow multiple groups to play the escape room at the same time.

#### *3.3. Educational Escape Rooms in Physics Education*

All six publications targeted secondary education. The escape games addressed the following topics: photovoltaic effect [45], physics of fluids [46,47], anti-matter [48] and electromagnets [49]. Monnot, Laborie, Hérbrard, and Dietrich (2020) do not specify the learning objectives of the described escape games [50]. The publication features a game maker approach, so different physical escape rooms and labs were designed by the students in groups of 5 to 10. Each of their escape rooms consisted of at least one locked box containing the exit key, included lab-based activities and targeted general chemistry and physics knowledge. Clues, videos, and detailed instructions were provided through a tablet. Two publications featured digital escape games. Hou and Chous (2012) developed a digital escape chamber where the students had to assemble an electromagnet and use it to get the key [49]. Fotovolt is a 2D point-and-click escape game for upper secondary education designed by Tulha, de Carvalho, and Coluci (2019) [45]. The game is based on constructionism theory and is integrated into a remote physics lab. A narrative or game goal is not mentioned, but there are six game phases dealing with the properties of light, electric energy, conductive materials, energy conversion, tension, and angulation. Two physical escape rooms addressed the physics of fluids, but contained different subtopics, like speed of efflux [47] or Pascal's law [46]. They both consisted of five linear puzzles and used envelopes as locks. Some physical escape games with hands-on or lab-based activities required advanced equipment, such as 3D pointers, x-ray machines or semiconductors [48], which makes them difficult for use in other educational settings. All mentioned physics escape games included lab-based activities.

#### *3.4. Educational Escape Rooms in Biology Education*

The biology escape games (3) were mainly designed for secondary education. Primary education was not targeted in our sample. Only Brady and Andersen (2019) developed a physical escape room for university students to review the course concepts of genetics analysis before the final exam [50,51]. In line with the learning objective, the theme firefly genetics was chosen. The proposed game cannot be played by multiple groups at the same time, due to the excessive use of physical space and props. In comparison to other escape rooms, the teacher had a more active role, verifying answers, giving instructions at specific stages of the game, guiding struggling groups, and handing out props, keys, and posters as puzzle rewards. The authors see the game master role of the teacher as a great way to observe students' problem solving and assess their aptitudes. Escaping from one or more rooms was the most popular goal for escape rooms in general. This was not the case for the biology escape games. The game goal in the biology domain was either to discover a secret [52], solve a crime [53], or to prove your worth and receive the Nobel Prize [51]. Bartlett and Anderson designed a tabletop escape game about decomposers and the process of decomposition. The narrative is set in a dystopian world where nearly all viable topsoil is lost. The only hope for mankind is to discover the secret research results of the shutdown lab. To solve the six puzzles students sorted pictures of "trash" (e.g., broken glass, a soda can, a tea bag), played a card game simulating the decomposition of different objects or calculating the C:N ratio. Customizable password-protected QR-codes

were generated as digital locks using QuickMark. This reduced the need for padlocked boxes and enabled the development of an entirely print-and-play version of the game. Healy (2019) also designed a tabletop escape game about entomology, including lab-based activities and live insects [53]. Students learn how insects can cause death and disease in humans and animals by solving a murder mystery and saving the falsely convicted John. Instruction cards and a set number of hint tokens are used, so that the teacher does not need to act as the game master. "The room of keys", developed by Mystakidis, Cachafeiro, and Hatzilygeroudis (2020), is an award-winning digital escape room about the structure and function of enzymes [54]. Prior to solving puzzles, students walk through a tutorial and expositional phase. The overall game play takes about 15 min. In addition to the tutorial phase the game includes simulated lab-based activities. The game provides audio and visual information to cover different learner types.

#### *3.5. Educational Escape Rooms in Computer Science Education*

More than half (7) of the 13 publications in the field of computer science targeted higher education, followed by secondary (4) and primary education (2). All of the publications aimed at promoting computational thinking (CK) as well as computer science problem solving [55]. Some common features of computational thinking include the logical organization and analysis of data, automated problem solving, and high efficiency as well as transferability of results [56]. In the scenario by Kahila, et al. (2020), for primary education, physical and virtual elements were combined [57]. The story of the game is that the children are sent to the Earth's orbit in a spaceship due to the fact that humankind has failed to stop climate change rendering the living conditions on Earth unhabitable. Now that the conditions have been restored, the children must solve some technical problems with the spaceship and plan how to land it safely. Many of the puzzles—mostly minigames—were hidden behind QR-codes distributed in the room. Due to the young target group, the games provided first insights into computational thinking—understanding of binary logic, basic ideas of program execution, decrypting codes, and so on. For instance, in one of the games the players had to find the most energy efficient route from the generator to the engines. In an escape room for 10th graders by Hacke (2019) students were sent on a spy mission [55]. They needed to identify the tasks of the next computer science exam stored on a tablet protected by a password and an alarm system in the room. The students had to solve three puzzles, for instance decrypting an encoded message, to unlock the tablet. One of the hints involved a digital camera which (after the memory card for it has been found) contained photos of objects in the room leading to further clues. López-Pernas et al., (2019) describe an educational escape room for higher education in a programming course (HTML, CSS, JavaScript etc.) for Bachelor students [58]. This game aimed at improving the students' knowledge of programming concepts. The story was built upon the challenge to decipher the genetic code of a vaccine against a deadly virus. The data leading to this code was contained in an unfinished application which was developed using the computer languages from the course. The students then had to rebuild the application and gain access to the code. While the games for primary and secondary education mainly focus on general computational thinking, this is an example of how scenarios for higher education include the content of the respective course.

#### *3.6. Educational Escape Rooms in General Science and Enviromental Science*

A total of five papers from the field of general science (STEM education) were identified in our review, three of them for secondary education. Veldkamp et al., (2020) designed an escape box for 15–16-year-old students containing analog and digital puzzles on different topics and socio-scientific issues such as climate change, plastic soup or infectious diseases [59]. The only proposal for primary education was published by Lin, Wang, Zhung and Wang (2017) [60]. They designed a fully digital escape room on the science behind papermaking. One scenario for higher education [61] focused on pre-service teachers as well as general concepts of astronomy (planets, satellites, etc.), mathematics (radius, perimeter), and science (density), under the overarching theme of sustainability. In an online setting, the pre-service teachers had to use their knowledge on these topics to complete a challenge given to them by the scientist Carl Sagan.

The two proposals from the field of environmental science both focus on higher education. Pater (2020) developed a game called "Unlock the Future" with the goal to increase the environmental attitudes and efficacy beliefs of the players [62]. The players need to "travel back in time" to stop climate change and save the earth. Chang (2019) followed a similar approach (dystopian future) but focused more on issues surrounding waste disposal [63].

#### *3.7. Educational Escape Rooms in Medicine*

As mentioned above, we were surprised by the numerous publications from the field of medicine (see Table 1). At this point, we would like to give a brief insight into the escape rooms in this domain. Many of the proposals (16) focus on the education of nurses. These games mainly focus on consolidating basic, routine procedures and concepts which frequently appear in a typical nursing working environment, for instance, the interpretation of laboratory results [64], improvement of patient care [65], or basic skills in clinical practice such as handling protective equipment or maintaining hand hygiene [66]. In a scenario called "operation outbreak", Frederick and Reed (2021) built upon the non-satisfactory results of a nursing exam and included content areas where scores had been the lowest (environmental cleaning, Spaulding classification, phases of anesthesia, surgical hand scrub, wound classification, patient safety, wound closure) [67]. In one of the eight puzzles, for example, the nurses had to put the steps of a surgical hand scrub in the correct order. After the intervention, an improvement in exam scores was observed.

Other escape rooms targeted medical, dentistry, and pharmacy students or healthcare professionals, also targeted at routine skills. In later professional life, these skills are often required to be carried out in certain stressful situations and under time pressures, just as in the game. From our point of view, this is one of the main reasons for the popularity of escape game format in the medical realm. Wilby and Kremer (2020) designed a short (five puzzles/quiz-based activities) escape room on basic knowledge of cancer and cancer treatment for medical students [68]. In one of them, the players had to find symptoms of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in the room, distinguish them from other symptoms, and put them in a specific order to obtain a code. In a game by Sanders, Kutzin, and Strother (2021), the players (healthcare workers) were locked in the simulation room by a serial killer and needed to escape by applying their knowledge of anion gap metabolic acidosis, pneumothorax, chest tube insertion, use of an ultrasound machine, as well as Brose low tape for pediatric resuscitations [69]. Among other activities, the players had to arrange a series of radiographs in the correct order or make a laryngoscope work by finding missing batteries.

#### *3.8. Empirical Research on the Effects of EER*

Most of the reviewed publications describe specific game scenarios with little, if any, evidence on their effectiveness. For example, Clapson et al., (2020) use a simple evaluation questionnaire with questions such as "If you could repeat this activity, what would you do differently?" for the test subjects' initial assessment of the game [31]. López-Pernas et al., (2019) argue that previous works on educational escape rooms have "failed to assess the impact of this sort of activities in terms of learning effectiveness" (p. 184221). However, learning effectiveness is not the only thing that may theoretically be measured using statistical tests or assessed using qualitative methods—aspects such as motivation, interest, student activation, and others may also be evaluated.

López-Pernas et al., (2019) used a pre-post-test research design to assess the learning effectiveness of their scenario [58]. The score difference was not only statistically significant but showed (especially for educational studies) a sizeable Cohen's d effect size (0.73). Chang (2019) implemented a control and treatment group design in a quite large undergraduate

course (*n* = 452) to test the effectiveness of her environmental science escape room [63]. She conducted focus group interviews after the game and used a pre- and post-questionnaire on environmental values, behaviors, and sense of agency, concluding that no significant differences between the two groups had been found when it came to changes in values, but significant differences were present as regards behavior changes. Only Chang (2019), as mentioned above, and Fuentes-Cabrera et al., (2020) used a control and treatment group design. The latter conducted an ad hoc questionnaire consisting of 32 items to research gender differences and a possible correlation between the dimensions achievement, anxiety, motivation, and autonomy. The authors found a statistically significant improvement of all four research dimensions in both groups, with the treatment group achieving higher results than the control group. Neither gender differences nor any kind of correlation could be found in the control group, whereas women had the highest level of anxiety and were the most motivated in the treatment group. At the moment there is no clear empirical evidence on the learning effect of escape games in comparison to a more traditional, lecturebased learning approach using a control and treatment group design. Some studies use previously established instruments to evaluate their games. Pater (2020) used the wellestablished GUESS scale [70] with nine subscales, including enjoyment, social connectivity, and visual aesthetics. Lin et al., (2017) used Kiili's flow scale (2006) [71] to measure the learners' state of flow, which turned out to be high. Yllana-Pietro, Jeong, and González-Gómez (2021) implemented a pre-post questionnaire measuring attitude, self-efficacy, and emotions towards science by running several statistical tests [61]. They observed an increase in positive attitude and high self-efficacy items, as well as the emotions "joy", "satisfaction" and "fun", but also negative emotions such as "nervousness" due to the unfamiliar online setting. There are quite a few studies using pre-post surveys or tests to measure the potential learning effect or affective outcomes, such as motivation, interest, and engagement, e.g., [43,51,54,60–63]. In particular, Berthod, Bouchoud, Grossrieder, Falaschi, Senhaji, and Bonnabry (2020) and Eukels' publications are to be mentioned. Berthod et al., (2020) found a significant increase in correct answers after the escape game activity. One month later, the same post-test was conducted again. Even then, 80% of the given answers were correct compared to 50% of correct answers in the pretest [72]. Eukel and his fellow researchers have developed multiple escape games for medical disciplines and researched their impact on students' content knowledge [73,74]. For example, Caldas, Eukel, Matulewicz, Fernández, and Donohoe (2019) conducted a pre- and post-assessment test. The post-test included the content-related questions of the pretest and an additional perception questionnaire. The assessment score improved significantly from 50% to 83.3%. To research whether escape games have a long-lasting learning effect, multiple post-tests need to be undertaken at different time intervals. It should be mentioned that none of the analyzed publications have researched which game components exactly influence students learning in a positive way. Therefore, thus far it cannot be postulated why the use of educational escape games benefits learning.

Some researchers rely on qualitative data to analyze students' interactions or to gain information that can potentially help to improve the game design. In a design-based research approach [75], Veldkamp et al., (2020) used classroom observations to evaluate the state of immersion of the students and formulate design principles for educational escape rooms [59]. Hacke (2019) conducted a video analysis of the students while playing (with over 200 participants) and analyzed the videos to identify participants' success in problem solving. In advance, he operationalized specific behaviors (e.g., systematic search for clues) that allowed for conclusions on the problem solving strategies [55].

#### **4. Discussion and Conclusions: Identifying (Research) Gaps**

As outlined above, playing and learning are closely connected, therefore, gamification in general as well as educational escape rooms in particular can be considered a "hot topic" in the STEM education community. Our literature review has shown that numerous proposals for the implementation of educational escape rooms in the field of STEM have

been published, especially in the last five years. Nevertheless, we were able to identify some gaps in the research and development on this topic. First of all, there is still a need for new proposals mainly in the subjects of physics and biology. Additionally, interdisciplinary scenarios covering several domains, as well as games from the field of environmental science, are still missing. Generally, there is a lack of interdisciplinary approaches. A positive finding is that most of the chemistry, physics, and biology settings use experiments to make the learning experience more varied and promote specific experimental skills which are highly relevant in these subjects. On the other hand, educators could consider creating games that are more simple, easily adaptable, less time-consuming games, and without the use of experiments. Our impression was that the escape rooms published so far were mainly adapted to the needs of a specific course or institution—this is understandable but limits the transferability of such proposals to other institutions and learning groups. The STEM education community would certainly benefit from a more systematic approach when it comes to covering standard school or higher education topics which are taught all around the world. As regards the levels of education for which the proposals are designed, most of them targeted tertiary education, so there is a great potential for development especially in the field of secondary education (and also primary education). Such a systematization can be achieved by several steps. First, we suggest implementing a database where all educational escape rooms available are collected and can be easily browsed—our review could be a starting point for this. Second, there is a need for a set of design principles for educational escape rooms. Veldkamp et al., 2020 outlined a first proposal on this issue which can serve as a basis for further discussions. Finally, there is a general need for more empirical evidence. Many of the publications we found were small-scale studies that used observations or feedback questionnaires. From our point of view, the following aspects can be of research interest: studies on how educational escape games affect motivation, collaboration, creativity, and problem solving; research on games that are set up to identify students' misconceptions or to confront them; as well as research on the effects of educational escape rooms for knowledge acquisition. Here, the potential research questions highly depend on the goals of the respective escape rooms. We realize that the goals differ depending on the domain. They vary from the promotion of content knowledge and scientific thinking (e.g., in chemistry, biology, or physics) to computational thinking (computer science) or the consolidation of routine procedures (medicine). Some of the available escape games are designed to be played remotely. It would be interesting to inquire as to whether such scenarios have comparable effects to live, physical escape rooms. When it comes to the technical implementation of the scenarios, we can say that while some of the games used digital settings, most of them can be considered to be quite low-tech. The potential future inclusion of virtual reality or augmented reality technologies will lead to new research interests on immersive learning environments with almost no spatial limitations.

In summary, educational escape rooms seem to be an engaging way to "gamify" STEM learning, however a much more systematic approach as well as more evidence is needed. Thus, educational escape rooms are not a declining trend yet, but scholars need to fill these existing gaps and create broadly adaptable frameworks in order to make full use of the potential of such teaching and learning scenarios.

**Supplementary Materials:** The following are available online at https://www.mdpi.com/article/10 .3390/educsci11060308/s1. Here we can provide a table showing all the analyzed results together with a short description of each escape room.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, C.L. and N.B.; methodology, C.L. and N.B.; investigation, C.L. and N.B.; writing—original draft preparation, C.L. and N.B.; writing—review and editing, C.L. and N.B. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research received no external funding.

**Institutional Review Board Statement:** Not applicable.

**Informed Consent Statement:** Not applicable.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.

#### **References**

## *Article* **Assessment of** *Scratch* **Programming Language as a Didactic Tool to Teach Functions**

**Eduardo Quevedo Gutiérrez 1,\* and Alberto Zapatera Llinares 2**

**Abstract:** The objective of this research is to study the *Scratch* programming language as a didactic tool to teach functions. The introduction of didactic tools allowing comprehension in simple and attractive ways is required. Given the traditional teaching/learning system, it is necessary to organize participatory and collaborative dynamic classrooms, which allow the interaction of students in activities where the educator modifies his or her traditional role as an advisor and the students take a more active role in learning through their own effort. In this sense, three activities using the *Scratch* programming language are proposed: the first one refers to the linear and affine functions, while the second one deals with the quadratic function and the third one is related to the exponential function. The participants in this study were 30 future teachers. The study considers the combination of magisterial lessons and active didactic methodologies as demonstration method, cooperative learning and gamification, also including the applied assessment. The activities, methodologies and assessment were evaluated by the participants with results higher than 4 in 5-point Likert scale for all cases, preferring the active methodologies than magisterial lessons.

**Keywords:** assessment; computational thinking; functions; future teachers; *Scratch*

## **1. Introduction**

The recent study of 2016 conducted by the European Commission "Developing Computational Thinking in Compulsory Education, Implications for Policy and Practice" argues that in the past decade, computational thinking and its related concepts (for example, coding, programming or algorithmic thinking) are receiving increased attention in the educational field [1]. As a result, a lot of public and private implementation initiatives have arisen. Despite this widespread interest, the successful integration of computational thinking in compulsory education still faces unresolved issues and challenges [2]. Computational thinking as such was enunciated at the beginning of this decade. Jeannette Wing, Ph.D. in Computer Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), who is one of its greatest exponents, presented a definition focused on the use of computer concepts to carry out activities, from solving problems to understanding human behavior, going through systems' design [3]. Computational thinking is based fundamentally on two learning theories: the constructivism of Jean Piaget, a Swiss psychologist and pedagogue who defended the endowment of tools for the student to solve problems [4], and the constructionism of Seymour Papert, a mathematician, computer scientist and American educator born in South Africa, who proposed the construction of mental models to understand the world around us [5]. Both learning theories focus on the construction of elements, following the maker philosophy to solve problems.

**Citation:** Quevedo Gutiérrez, E.; Zapatera Llinares, A. Assessment of *Scratch* Programming Language as a Didactic Tool to Teach Functions. *Educ. Sci.* **2021**, *11*, 499. https:// doi.org/10.3390/educsci11090499

Academic Editors: José Carlos Piñero Charlo, María Teresa Costado Dios, Enrique Carmona Medeiro and Fernando Lloret

Received: 28 July 2021 Accepted: 31 August 2021 Published: 3 September 2021

**Publisher's Note:** MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

**Copyright:** © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).

#### *1.1. Scratch as a Computational Thinking Didactic Tool*

*Scratch* is a visual programming language developed by a team from MIT Media Lab, led by Mitch Resnick. *Scratch* is used by students, teachers and parents to create simple animations and interactions, fostering computational thinking, thus putting into practice the theses of Piaget and Papert [6]. The main contribution of *Scratch* is that it is intended for early age users, which makes it directly applicable as a didactic tool devoted to teaching programming to elementary students. Increasingly, students are interested in programming as a creator of different utilities, applications and games. This interest appears more and more at early ages. *Scratch* offers a perspective advanced in knowledge but simple in management [7]. As a matter of fact, *Scratch* is used in education for a wide variety of applications, such as mathematics competences [8], interdisciplinary works [9], videogames [10], logical thinking [11] or robotics [12].

There are several studies that use *Scratch* as a tool to work in mathematical-based problems. In [13], Rodríguez Martínez et al. considered the use of *Scratch* in problems focusing on the divisibility concepts of the greatest common divisor and the least common multiple, achieving a statistically significant improvement in the participants who solved problems using *Scratch*. In [14], Shahbari et al. engaged 18 prospective teachers in a sequence of mathematical problems that utilized *Scratch*, concluding that the role of the sequence side-by-side with the guidelines of the instructor, had an important role in supporting the developments of learner's meta-cognitive functions in mathematics problem-solving. *Scratch* has been also considered as a tool to teach geometry, using for instance a physical *Scratch*-based programmable artifact in order to design, implement and discuss geometry activities for primary school classes; results showed that it supposed a combination of mathematics learning opportunities for students and teachers [15].

In this paper, *Scratch* is used as a computational thinking didactic tool to teach functions. From the very beginning, since primary school courses, the acquisition of mathematical concepts through *Scratch* has been considered [13]. More specifically, the teaching of the Cartesian coordinate system, in accordance with the current educational curriculum, is a challenge for the teacher. The objective consists of students being able to describe positions and movements by means of coordinates, distances among points located in straight horizontal lines, parallelisms, perpendicularity, angles, turns, etc., using the geometric vocabulary [16].

This study considers the combination of magisterial lesson and active didactic methodologies, which are detailed in the following section, assessing the contents of the activities, the used methodologies and the applied assessment.

#### *1.2. Active Didactic Methodologies and Scratch*

The use of active didactic methodologies increases motivation and improves student learning autonomy in a significant way [17]. The motivation of the presented activities in this paper to show the teaching of the functions with *Scratch* is focused on proposing didactic alternatives. In this way, *Scratch* programming language is considered as a way to build the reality.

The challenge is to discern what strategies might be appropriate to be introduced in the curricula in order to achieve meaningful learning. Thus, given the traditional teaching/learning system, it is necessary to organize participatory and collaborative dynamic classrooms, which allows the interaction of students in activities where the educator modifies his or her traditional role as an advisor and the students take a more active role in learning through their own effort [18]. Therefore, a set of complementary active methodologies is sought, including the demonstration method, cooperative learning and gamification.

#### 1.2.1. Demonstration Method

This method provides lessons by exhibiting and demonstrating. It demonstrates things, events, rules and sequences of activities, either directly or through using instructional media, which is relevant to the subject matter or material that will be presented. The purpose of teaching using the demonstration method is to show the process of occurrence of an event according to the teaching materials, how they are attained and the ease to be understood by the students in teaching learning process [19]. The demonstration method fits very well with the idea of computational thinking, since students share ideas and develop activities based on their own proposals, including new elements. Likewise, *Scratch* allows one to visualize in real time the programming of the performed task.

#### 1.2.2. Cooperative Learning

As indicated by [20], "cooperative learning is promoted in the mid-twentieth century as a teaching strategy that favors school integration but it is proposed and supported by constructivist and sociocultural theorists as a promoter of cognitive and socio-affective development" [20]. Cooperative learning consists of the provision of small groups of students who work together in order to improve their learning. In this didactic methodology, there are three types, according to the stability or permanence of the group [21]:

Taking into account that the activities outlined in this paper to reinforce concepts related to functions would be framed in a specific quarter, perhaps it would be appropriate to raise formal groups in class, which begin to work cooperatively with *Scratch*. These groups could be extended to the complete course, becoming cooperative base groups. This makes sense if this technological tool, or others related, are used throughout the rest of the course and it is desired to have a global vision of the development of the activity carried out by the working groups. In this case, it would be appropriate to monitor the work capacity of the groups at all times, in order to make changes when necessary. A suitable number for group size would be three students, and may even be two, if the computer resources of the educational center allow it.

#### 1.2.3. Gamification

According to [22], the term gamification can be defined as "The process of gamethinking and game mechanics to engage users and solve problems". The combination of the demonstration method and cooperative learning together with gamification manages to apply collaboratively dynamics and strategies of the game to the learning process. To accomplish this, a clear message should be defined intentionality, choosing the strategy to follow and finally evaluating and measuring progress. Games are traditionally used in early ages but stigmatized in more advanced ages, sometimes being considered a waste of time. However, in recent years, gamification has become a methodological trend with great presence in classrooms [23,24]. Consequently, a fast growth of the publications in the area of gamification in education has arisen over the past seven years. Moreover, the worldwide interest in the area is indicated by the number of countries in which the contributing authors are based and the number of institutions to which they are affiliated [25].

The approach carried out in the learning of functions through programming with *Scratch* is a game in itself. It allows the student to try different options until reaching the problem solution, without fear of making mistakes in the process. This is very interesting since the fact of not being able to reach the final solution may involve the student's motivation to continue playing and improving; on the contrary, in the education system, usually the mistakes are penalized, which can lead to demotivation [26]

#### 1.2.4. Combination of the Proposed Methodologies

The use of cooperative learning combined with the demonstration method and gamification would provide the following advantages:

The objective of this paper is to study the *Scratch* programming language as a didactic tool to teach functions and analyze the suitability of different methodologies to teach functions. From this perspective, the following research questions are posed:

#### **2. Materials and Methods**

*2.1. Teaching of the Cartesian Coordinate System*

2.1.1. Traditional Teaching Versus Didactic Proposal

The teaching of the Cartesian coordinate system is usually oriented to didactically explain the location in a map or graphic. It is also possible to play games such as the classic "Sea Battle". Considering these possibilities, learning situations such as "El Cartesiano" have been proposed [27].

The didactic proposal which considers *Scratch* presented in this paper is focused on understanding the Cartesian coordinate system as an element integrated on the computer screen in which the student is working on. The idea is to show this proposal to future teachers who are learning mathematics didactics at the university, in order to propose an alternative to teach this topic. The *Scratch* scenario (the working window) is measured in pixels (px). The scenario dimensions are 480 px (width) by 360 px (height). Each pixel is a square which composes a digital image. Therefore, a high resolution image (1920 × 1200 px) is much bigger than the *Scratch* scenario, as shown in Figure 1.

#### 2.1.2. The Cartesian Coordinate System in *Scratch*

*Scratch* allows one to select several scenarios as a template or to use new ones created by the user. There are predefined scenarios in the current version of *Scratch* (3.0), also available in the previous version (2.0), which show the Cartesian coordinate system as follows:

**Figure 1.** *Scratch* scenarios in a 1920 × 1200 px high resolution image.

**Figure 2.** *Scratch* scenarios related to the Cartesian Coordinate System. As a reference a cross (object Button5) is located in coordinates (100, 100).

*Scratch* scenarios present a powerful didactic tool. On the one hand, the scenarios in Figure 2 are useful to work the area concept in flat figures, taking as a reference 100 × 100, 30 × 30 and 20 × 20 squares. On the other hand, to consider the position of an element in the screen, a *Scratch* object must be included. For instance, in the Figure 2 scenario, a cross (object Button5) is located at the coordinates (100, 100).

Once the Cartesian coordinate system is explained considering the *Scratch* scenarios, the didactic proposal of this paper is based on presenting and assessing three different activities based on linear, affine, quadratic and exponential functions considering the combination of the active didactic methodologies previously presented.

#### *2.2. Proposed Activities*

In this paper, three activities using the *Scratch* programming language are proposed: the first one refers to the linear and affine functions, while the second one deals with the quadratic function and the third one is related to the exponential function. The proposed activities were introduced to a group of 30 students of the Mathematics and its Didactics I subject of the Primary Education Degree of the Faculty of Education Sciences (FCEDU) of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC). In the last didactic unit of this subject, dedicated to algebra, the linear, affine, quadratic and exponential functions are studied. The objective is to present these functions in a didactic way, so these activities were proposed as a reinforcement exercise.

#### 2.2.1. Activity 1: Going to the Cinema with the Linear and Affine Functions

This section presents an activity applied to a linear function, which is then adapted to an affine function, based on a situation of daily life taking as a reference on a problem of multiplicative structure. This type of problems is identified with a rule of three in which there is direct proportionality. A suitable way of didactic resolution is the reduction to unity. Thus, the following problem is proposed:

> *"If the cost for 3 friends to go to the cinema is 18 €, how much would it cost for 7 friends to go to the cinema?"*

According to the technique which is usually explained for the direct rule of three, a cross-multiplication may be used as follows:

> 3 friends → 18 € 7 friends → *x €* Therefore 3·*x*= 7·18 → *x* = 42 €

This way of resolution is far away from the practical form of calculation which is carried out in real life, which would happen to wonder how much a ticket costs and then multiplying the cost of a ticket by the number of friends who are going to the cinema, as follows:

*"If the cost for 3 friends to go to the cinema is 18 €, then the ticket costs 18/3 = 6 € Therefore, the cost for 7 friends is 7*·*6 = 42 €"*

This problem applied to functions could then be understood as a linear function in which the slope (*m* in a linear function *y* = *mx*) would constitute the cost of the ticket (6 €), the independent variable *x* would be the number of friends, and the dependent variable *y* would be the total cost to go to the cinema. Based on this idea, a *Scratch* program could be proposed as follows:

	- a. In which quadrants of the coordinate system can the problem solution be found? *Answer*: First quadrant (linear function). The answer changes to the first and third quadrants if an affine function is considered.
	- b. What would be the maximum number of friends we can consider taking into account that the result is within the *Scratch* screen? *Answer*: 30 friends (6×30 = 180: maximum ordinate in *Scratch* screen) for a linear function. Thus, the solution is *x* = 30 and *y* = 180. To show this result, the xy-grid-30px scenario could be used as a reference, as represented in Figure 3 (the cross marks the position for *x* = 15 and *y* = 90, just in the middle, and each square of the grid is 30 × 30). The answer changes depending on the ordinate of the origin if an affine function is considered.

**Figure 3.** Linear function with the solution marked for 15 friends (cost = 90 €).

Once the linear function is studied, a variant can be considered to pass from the linear function *y* = *mx* to the affine function *y* = *mx* + *n*, giving meaning to the ordinate in origin *n*, proposing the following alternatives:

The affine functions corresponding to alternatives (1) and (2) are represented in Figure 4, which appear, respectively, above and below the linear function represented.