Abstract
Gamification of the classroom motivates students and improves both academic and soft skills. The use of educational escape games as a form of gamification shows potential in developing students’ soft skills such as teamwork, problem solving, and communication skills. This study sought to determine if middle school students engage in similar soft skills experiences while participating in educational escape rooms. An eighth grade English Language Arts teacher and the primary investigator participated in an action research project to design educational escape experiences over the course of eight months for a middle school in South Texas. The goal of the project was to design classroom experiences to engage students in the content curriculum while also encouraging the growth of soft skills (skills such as teamwork and leadership that are desirable and apply across a variety of situations). The research questions guiding this project were: 1) What soft skills do middle school students engage in while participating in an educational escape experience?, 2) How do students engage in the use of these soft skills?, and 3) How can teachers manipulate the escape experience design to include soft skills? Results of the study showed that during educational escape experiences students demonstrated a growth mindset through their motivation to engage in the problem, use of problem-solving skills involving using background knowledge and looking for patterns, and resiliency in completing the challenges. Students believed they could complete the challenges and persisted until the challenge was completed, regardless of beating opponents or winning prizes. Keywords: escape experiences, soft skills, hidden curriculum, innovative teaching, middle school DOI: 10.7176/JEP/11-14-04 Publication date: May 31 st 2020
Highlights
The term “gamification” became popular in 2010 and the process of gamifying classrooms has grown in popularity since that time (Dichev & Dicheva, 2017)
The research questions guiding this project were: 1) What soft skills do middle school students engage in while participating in an educational escape experience?, 2) How do students engage in the use of these soft skills?, and 3) How can teachers manipulate the escape experience design to include soft skills? Answering these questions will add to the body of literature exploring the use of educational escape experiences in the middle school setting
The way students use soft skills and the way teachers manipulate experiences to include soft skills are both tied directly to the soft skills students use in educational escape experiences
Summary
The term “gamification” became popular in 2010 and the process of gamifying classrooms has grown in popularity since that time (Dichev & Dicheva, 2017). Stated, this means that teachers add elements of game design to classroom experiences in an effort to increase student engagement in the curriculum through an immersive experience (Marti-Perreño et al, 2016; Dichev & Dicheva, 2017). Gamification motivates students to engage in the learning process, leading to increased student effort and time on task, improving academic outcomes. Escape rooms are games full of puzzles that must be solved in a given time limit to ‘escape,’ or win. This study sought to determine if middle school students engage in similar soft skills experiences while participating in educational escape rooms
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