Bringing an Educational Escape Room into the Mathematics Classroom
Keywords:
escape room, teacher content knowledge, problem-solving, teacher educationAbstract
Recently, there has been an increased emphasis on the use of educational escape rooms (EERs) in educational research. In this article, four pre-service teachers (PSTs) plan an EER for implementation with 9th grade students in their teaching practice period. The aim of the research is to explore the priorities that the PSTs set at the planning and implementation stages regarding both content and form. Qualitative data were collected through observation and focus group interviews, which were analysed in four phases inspired by constant comparative analysis. The results are discussed in relation to theories and research on teacher content knowledge, problem-solving in mathematics, and EER in the mathematics classroom. It appears that planning and implementing an EER for use in mathematics teaching is a complex, challenging task, requiring knowledge-based attention to both content and form, as well as the need for a clear motivation for bringing an EER into the mathematics classroom. Regardless of how an EER is planned and implemented, an implication of the results in the article is that the underlying rationale of the teacher’s priorities for the students’ learning outcomes must be evident, and these priorities must match the expected features of an EER.
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