Abstract:

Nowadays we live in an ever-changing society. The educational context is no exception and requires a renewal of paradigms. Profound changes to the role and function of the professor and the students are particularly vital. Active, cooperative and participative methodologies of learning must be privileged, breaking with magisterial education and the mere transmission of knowledge. Mathematics is one of the school subjects where demotivation is a frequent concern. It is necessary to go beyond the traditional; the teacher must look for resources that make his classes flow, so that the students acquire or increase their interest in mathematics. The escape room is a gaming experience that challenges participants to get out of a room where they are locked in. To reach the key to the exit door, players need to overcome a variety of challenges. Following the increasingly recurrent adoption of gamification strategies in teaching-learning processes, the educational escape room is part of this game experience and aims at the team and real-time resolution of challenges in which players/students discover clues and solve mysteries, fulfilling several tasks in a room with the purpose of learning in an active way. Some of its benefits include improving student performance and motivation and fostering active learning.
In this paper, we present a case study on educational escape room used in a first-year undergraduate students from a Portuguese higher education institution in an effort to enhance mathematical problem-solving skills. We conducted the experimente in a match-related escape room has been controlled group wich had not played.
The aim of the study is to to evaluate how escape room can contribute to increase students' motivation. A quantitative survey is being conducted to gather information about students’ insights on the use of escape room.
Preliminary analysis of the data collected, indicates there are interesting alternatives to the dominant pedagogies in higher education (where education assumes a form almost exclusively magisterial and is based on the transmission of knowledge), with greater advantage in the construction of knowledge on the part of the students, centered in a logic of skill development. Empirical qualitative observation demonstrated an improvement in students’ engagement and commitment during mathematics-based classroom activities.

Keywords:

Higher Education, Educational Escape Room, Mathematics Education, Game-Based Learning, Problem Solving, Soft Skills.