The escape room and breakout as an aid to learning STEM contents in primary schools: an examination of the development of pre-service teachers in Spain

Abstract

Gamification consists of using game elements in non-game contexts, such as in education, aiming to promote cooperation, motivation, or engagement. Here, the Escape Room and Breakout games are in early stages in formal educational environments. Specifically, in primary education, this type of tools can be useful to support the teaching and learning process of pupils. This study aims to describe a BrEscapeRm (Escape Room and Breakout combine) used as educational tool to teach STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) contents in a science course of degree in Primary Education. After completing the activity, students’ perception about the BrEscapeRm were gauged, resulting that they found it funny, interesting, motivating, and exciting. However, a certain rejection to the tasks containing calculation and science contents was detected. During BrEscapeRm development, students were very focused on each task and there was a sense of pleasure at the end of BrEscapeRm. Therefore, this activity could have multiple benefits for the student’s motivation and engagement in learning in primary education.