The use of Educational Escape Rooms in the Lifelong Training of Mathematics Teachers

Abstract

Educational escape rooms represent an innovative and engaging educational approach, with a high potential for the development of problem-solving and collaboration skills. That is why it is important to familiarize teachers with them and support them for their use in the teaching practice. Our paper presents a case study investigating the utilization of two versions of digital educational escape rooms (DEERs) within the lifelong training of mathematics teachers. Thirty-two mathematics educators of pupils aged 10 to 19 participated in the research. DEERs were developed in two digital platforms: Room Escape Maker and Google Forms, offering an interactive adventure game and a story-based text game, respectively. The study aimed to explore teachers' perceptions of these DEER versions and their potential applications in teaching. Data collection employed observation and a questionnaire survey, followed by qualitative evaluation through thematic analysis. The research's limitations include the sample size and the specifications of the utilized DEERs.