*Article* **Formative Potential of the Development and Assessment of an Educational Escape Room Designed to Integrate Music-Mathematical Knowledge**

**José Carlos Piñero Charlo 1,\*, Paula Ortega García <sup>1</sup> and Sara Román García <sup>2</sup>**


**Abstract:** In the particular case of Spain, student and teacher difficulties associated with the mathematical discipline have been evidenced in PISA and TEDS-M reports. As we consider that the teachers' difficulties are connected to the students' performance, we propose a multi-disciplinary approach to deliver specific didactic/mathematical knowledge to the trainee teachers. Such additional instruction shall be meaningfully connected to the real needs of the schools, so a service-learning approach is proposed here. In the present manuscript, the trainee teachers have co-designed educational escape rooms (in coordination with local schools) with the aim of mobilizing curricular knowledge. The goal of the educational escape rooms is to foster the mathematic-related competencies by establishing meaningful connections to other curricular disciplines (music-related knowledge, in the case of this study). This paper reports on the particular experience developed with a group of students (trainee teachers) while designing their educational escape rooms, focusing on the particular case of a specific student to evidence the formative potential of the procedure. The didactic suitability of the proposed escape room has been analyzed and professional development has also been discussed, showing the mobilization of relevant professional skills and fostering the related music and mathematical didactic competencies by shifting the teaching perspective from an algorithmic point of view to a more "reasoning and designing" strategy. This constitutes an evidence of the formative potential on the co-design of educational escape rooms, when designed in the frame of a service learning approach.

**Keywords:** teacher instruction; motivation; curricular integration; mathematics instruction

## **1. Introduction**

A school's curriculum may appear unrelated, fragmented or somewhat disjointed due to the lack of communication and connection among topics and subjects. This fragmentation often affects students' performance inducing lack of interest and confusion, thus, perceiving some knowledge as useless and affecting the experience being delivered to them in school [1]. Indeed, some core curricular subjects seem to be clearly affected by these problems, particularly scientific and mathematical knowledge. For the particular case of Spain, schoolchildren show their worst results in scientific knowledge in PISA [2] tests (scoring below the OECD average). The PISA 2018 report indicates that such a result might be due to students' lack of capacity to formulate, manage, and interpret mathematics in a variety of contexts. This bad performance might be related to the lack of connections of scientific/mathematical knowledge to other curricular topics, but might also be related to their teachers' specific lack of knowledge. Indeed, for the sake of comparison, PISA statistic data can be compared to that of the TEDS-M report [3], thus, giving information on the teachers' specific lack of mathematical knowledge. In doing so, worrisome data regarding the mathematical and didactic knowledge of on-service teachers are revealed

García, P.; Román García, S. Formative Potential of the Development and Assessment of an Educational Escape Room Designed to Integrate Music-Mathematical Knowledge. *Educ. Sci.* **2021**, *11*, 131. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci 11030131

**Citation:** Piñero Charlo, J.C.; Ortega

Academic Editor: David Geelan

Received: 15 February 2021 Accepted: 15 March 2021 Published: 18 March 2021

**Publisher's Note:** MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

**Copyright:** © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).

(see Figure 1). These results reveal the key importance of specific "mathematical training programs" for teachers' education, with Spain teachers lightly below the mean score for both didactic and mathematic knowledge. In this regard, Figure 1 shows the average performance of 15-year-old students in mathematics (regardless of the school type and grade attended), evidencing a wide gap between the Spanish score (blue line) and the average OECD score (orange line). Figure 1 also shows the score provided by the TEDS-M report for the didactic-mathematical knowledge of on-service teachers, where Spanish teachers are also below the OECD average.

Attending to Figure 1 data, it is clear that countries with a specific teacher education in mathematics score higher that those with a generic teacher education. Furthermore, the poor performance of Spanish students could be related to the low didactic-mathematical knowledge of their own teachers.

Therefore, two main challenges should be attended: (i) To solve the "curricular isolation" of the mathematics discipline, promoting the ability to establish connections and (ii) designing a specific teacher academic education in mathematics as a way to improve didactic-mathematical knowledge.

This manuscript constitutes a research report, showing data corresponding to a "mentoring program" to deliver specific didactic-mathematic education to students (trainee teachers). We would like to face both challenges at once, creating a framework to treat the "isolation" and the low didactic knowledge in mathematics. To solve the perceived "curricular isolation" of the mathematics discipline, the use of curricular integration techniques can be an approach, which may help establish connections. In this regard, Anglin [4]

insights that "integrating curriculum correctly requires more than combining two subjects, or turn teaching". Therefore, in effective curriculum-integration models knowledge is meaningfully related, connecting in such a way that it becomes relevant to other areas of learning, as well as in real life.

In this contribution, the authors assume that a curricular integration approach may lead to a significant improvement in the students' mathematical skills (including reasoning mathematically and using mathematical concepts, procedures, facts, and tools to describe, explain, and predict phenomena). It is also assumed that curricular integration may motivate students to perceive mathematical knowledge as useful. Finally, a schoolchild and future teachers should "enjoy while doing mathematics", so a gamification approach is also considered. The main goals of this study can be summarized as:

	- Delivering specific didactic-mathematical knowledge in touch with on-service teachers and schools.
	- Designing, analyzing, and implementing problem-solving scenarios (educational escape rooms) as a way to mobilize professional didactic-mathematical skills.

To do so, the authors (researchers and teachers at the University) have created a mentoring program formalized as two academic year's student/teacher cooperation. The goal of the mentoring program was to improve the didactic-mathematical knowledge of participant students (trainee teachers). This goal should be achieved in two stages (each one, corresponding to a different academic year). Both years would be dedicated to solve specific mathematical difficulties reported by on-service teachers in cooperating schools. Difficulties would be treated by designing gamified environments (educational escape rooms), specifically developed to mobilize mathematical competencies in a curricular integration approach. That is, students should design an educational escape room which shall mobilize curricular knowledge as a way to promote connections and relations among the different curricular subjects. In doing so, some research questions should be answered by the students: Can an educational escape room be used to work music and mathematical knowledge? How can music and mathematics didactic situations be analyzed?

The project started with a small group of five cooperating students, creating a team able to design, implement, evaluate, and re-design such educational escape rooms in close relation to cooperating primary education schools (CEIPs). This procedure allows students (future teachers) to enjoy a "specific mathematic education", in close relation with their own interests, while providing valuable support to the CEIPs. Students should have accomplished the core mathematic education of the "Primary Education Degree" of the University career, so the 2-year cooperation was designed to go beyond the core instruction.

In this manuscript, we present one of the educational escape rooms designed by one of the five cooperating students, analyzing its didactic suitability, exploring the possibilities of curricular integration, and analyzing the professional development achieved by this specific student.

#### **2. Background and Framework**

As mentioned in the Introduction Section, this manuscript presents an educational escape room (EER) designed by students with the aim of mobilizing mathematic competencies, while emphasizing connections in a curricular integration approach. EER should be useful to treat specific mathematic difficulties reported by the on-service teachers. Therefore, as the aim of this procedure is the implantation and evaluation of the designed EER, students have been in touch with the cooperating schools (coordinating, scheduling, and programming the interventions). This section presents a brief discussion of the theoretical framework which inspired the core ideas of the study.

#### *2.1. The Need for Curricular Integration*

Criticism of a standards-based curriculum began when the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) [5] produced the Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for Schools in 1989 [6]. Since then, numerous evidences have been reported on the effects of changing from a traditional mathematics curriculum to an integrated mathematics curriculum on student mathematics learning [7,8]. In Europe, and as a consequence of the Bologna Process (a European process to adapt education to the new reality), an aptitude-based perspective has been used to inspire the new curricula [9,10]. In this context, adopting curricular integration approaches have been recommended in all educational stages.

Curricular integration is a way to promote interdisciplinary teaching, and can be defined as a method used to teach across curricular disciplines, with the aim of bringing together previously separated disciplines around common themes, issues or problems [11]. Literature [12] identifies seven common elements which are shared among different integrated curriculum approaches: (i) A combination of subjects, (ii) an emphasis on projects, (iii), the use of a wide variety of source material beyond textbooks, (iv) highlighting relationships among concepts, (v) thematic units, (vi) flexible schedules, and (vii) flexible student grouping. Curricular integration approaches have become more and more widespread as the emphasis of the learning process has emphasized on connections and skill development rather than on curricular disciplines [13].

One way curriculum developers have created a standards-based curriculum is by arranging consecutive integrated courses, which incorporate different content and process standards [14]. However, this can in fact lead to a disintegration of curriculum if great care is not taken to review and base learning on the previous year's topics [15]. Since an integrated curriculum generally alternates between content strands, students can lose the understanding of mathematical systems [15], so a problem-based approach is required.

In the particular case of Spain, curricular integration approaches are being used to give an answer to students who ask "what is this knowledge useful for?", since "meeting the reality is one of the aims of an educational system" [16]. In this regard, J. Torres [16] spotted that "some knowledge will only make sense when integrated with the living reality".

In the present contribution, authors aim to educate students (future teachers) for an effective music-mathematical integration. In this regard, the proposal aims to encourage our students to allow children in primary and early childhood education to explore and play in both music and mathematics and to experience the synergy of exploring the two subjects as one. For future teachers to be confident in their ability to incorporate integrated approaches in the teaching of music and mathematics, teachers may need to re-conceptualize what it is that makes an activity "musical" and "mathematical". This may require support from higher education tutors and teachers and is likely to take time to develop. However, experience to date indicates that, when experienced teachers and trainee teachers engage in appropriate activities for themselves, they quickly develop the confidence to explore the activities further and even go on to create activities of their own [17]. Finally, the proposed approach is supported by previous research [18], which reports that teachers became more comfortable at the global thought of integrating music and core academic objectives, with a slight increase in the confidence level in integrating music with reading, math, science or social studies objectives.

#### *2.2. Co-Design of Didactic Situations*

Some authors report that a real empowering in learning processes can be achieved by the educational co-design [19]. Participatory design (originally co-operative design, now often co-design) is an approach to design attempting to actively involve all the participants in the design process to help ensure that the result meets their needs and is usable. In the particular case of education, participatory design should allow students to investigate and develop their own learning processes via peer-to-peer discussions and teachers' feedback [20]. In this regard, the co-design of didactic situations shall fit with the principles mentioned in literature [21,22], which can be summarized in:


In the case of this manuscript, the co-design approach is used to fit creative tasks cooperatively developed by on-service school teachers, students, and the authors of this manuscript (researcher and teachers at the University). Participatory design processes should be based on a question to be solved, whose treatment could be supported and enhanced by the use of virtual learning networks [23]. With the aim of respecting such principles, the procedure employed in this research involved the creation of a small "designer team" (constituted of five students). To enhance the process, this "designer team" should be coordinated in the creation of problems, activities, tasks, tests, narrative, etc. to be taken into account when designing an EER. On-line and face-to-face meetings with the researchers in charge (authors of the manuscript) were scheduled, in order to provide feedback to the students. Moreover, virtual meetings with on-service teachers at the school were also scheduled to verify that the designed EERs were fitting with their needs, as well as to plan different implementations.

#### *2.3. A Service-Learning Approach*

In 1979, Robert Sigmon [24] defined service-learning as an experiential education approach that is premised on "reciprocal learning" suggesting that since learning flows from service activities, both those who provide the service and receive it "learn" from the experience. In Sigmon's view, service-learning occurs only when both the providers and recipients of the service benefit from the activities. Since its original idea, service-learning has evolved to become a methodology, a teaching-learning tool (and even a pedagogy by itself) that combines the service to a community with the professional formation and the needed reflection, which enrich the learning experiences of students and teachers [25].

Nowadays, service-learning is considered an educational approach that combines learning objectives with community service in order to provide a pragmatic, progressive learning experience, while meeting societal needs. This methodology involves students in service projects to apply classroom learning for local agencies that exist to effect positive change in the community.

In this particular study, authors have assumed a service-learning approach to boost students' learning experience, while meeting the school needs (specifically, schoolchildren's mathematical difficulties). With this approach, researchers would like to simultaneously attend to the students and schoolchildren's mathematical difficulties. This approach aims to contribute to solve the situation spotted in the Introduction (see Figure 1). In the presented experience, university students (primary education trainee teachers) have cooperated with several schools to design and implement educational escape rooms that fit the specific school needs.

#### *2.4. Educational Escape Rooms as a Formative Tool*

A conventional escape room consists of a live-action, team-based game where players are jailed in a room where they will have to solve puzzles in order to unravel a story and escape before the available time ends. Using mathematical puzzles (such as situations of calculus resolution, data acquisition, probability determination, etc.) the players get access to a combination of numbers that enables them to open mechanisms that grant access to other puzzles. The last enigma (or the combined result of some enigmas), grants the final code to escape the room. Finally, there is a "game master" supervising the escape room experience, who can eventually communicate with the players.

In this contribution, the authors' starting hypothesis considers that an escape roombased activity might be a powerful educational resource to create learning opportunities for primary-school schoolchildren, but also to promote professional skills on trainee teachers by designing EERs. This approach is shared by other authors in literature [26]. Using an EER to tell a story, students are transformed into protagonists of an escapism tale and, to have success, they will have to mobilize curricular knowledge (conveniently fitted to the educational level of the students). In addition, this resource fosters collaboration, allowing the development of social skills (cooperation between players is essential to complete the adventure). Furthermore, the EER can be used to deliver an integrated experience, so that knowledge is not isolated but meaningfully connected to the different clues, tools, enigmas, scenery, and other elements of the ERR.

We have already demonstrated the potential of EERs to promote knowledge [27], by designing the experience of a problem-based game and emphasizing the equivalent game-problem [28,29]. In this regard, the literature reports that problem-based learning approaches may help mitigate the different mathematics performances evidenced in PISA reports [30]. Design criteria and guidelines were provided to students, but the proposal presented here could not be implemented (due to the COVID-19 pandemic). Therefore, the potential of the EER in terms of "useful teaching tool to be used in primary education" could not be presented in this manuscript. However, the students' design of EERs will be evaluated in terms of professional development, analyzing the didactic suitability as well as the fit to the design criteria, needs of the school, and success as a curricular integration tool.

#### **3. Methodology**

In January 2017, the project started with the idea of co-designing gamified environments (educational escape rooms—EERs) so that students have a way to interact with on-service teachers, researchers (authors of the manuscript), and schoolchildren. The goal of the project was to promote didactic and mathematic knowledge in a meaningful way for both students and schoolchildren.

#### *3.1. Design-Based Research and Didactic Engineering*

Design-based research (DBR) is a family of methodological approaches for the study of learning in context [31]. It uses the design and systematic analysis of instructional strategies and tools, trying to ensure that instructional design and research are interdependent. In a first practical approach, DBR consists of orienting research to introduce innovations in education. One of the DBR main characteristics is the introduction of new elements that shall transform the situation [32]. DBR aims to provide answers to real problems (detected in the educational reality) taking scientific theories or theoretical models as a starting point which is available for solving such problems. To this aim, programs, didactic packages, tools, didactic strategies, etc. are designed, tested, and validated so, once improved, can be diffused to the school reality.

The design-based research process is often presented in two stages: (i) The research process until a new product is created and the successive improvements, and (ii) delivering knowledge so that new principles can contribute to the new design process. The product is not only composed of material tools (textbooks, video, computer apps or simulations, etc.) but also composed of processes and procedures (teaching methods, schoolchildren scheduling plans, didactic strategies, etc.).

On the other hand, "didactic engineering" (DE) was introduced in the French Didactic of Mathematics in the early 80s to describe a research approach in mathematics education comparable to an engineer's work. Since its origin, didactic engineering was fundamentally connected to educational interventions (experiments) in classrooms, usually sequences of lessons. These experiences were guided by and tried to test some theoretical ideas. That is, DE is conceived as the design and evaluation of theoretically justified sequences of mathematical teaching, with the intention of triggering the emergence of some educational phenomena, and developing teaching resources scientifically tested. DE is based on the theory of didactical situations [31,32] and involves the experimentation (classroom teaching interventions) and validation via a priori and posteriori analysis. In this manuscript, a combination of DBR with DE (which have common terms, as stated in literature [33,34]) is used.

#### *3.2. Participants and SAMPLING*

By the year 2018, a group of five cooperating students voluntarily conform a mentored "designer team" (supervised by the authors of this manuscript). Such a team should act in coordination with different primary education schools (CEIPs) of the province. In the 2017/18 academic year, three different CEIPs were interested in the implementation of EERs. However, the demand highly increased in 2019 and the project was expanded to interact with conventional courses, so more students could cooperate on the initiative. This project is being developed at the University of Cadiz. Students belong to the "Primary education degree" and have a mean age of 21 years. Two lines are actually being developed:


Figure 2 summarizes the procedure and methodologies used in line 1, emphasizing the use of the results provided by this line to ease real didactic situations that are used in conventional lectures with students. As presented in Figure 2, implementation of the designed EER occurs after a co-design phase, while service-learning stages are present at the beginning and the end of each cycle.

**Figure 2.** Schematic of the two research lines in the project. Line 1 focuses on the co-design of Educational Escape Rooms as a way to expand didactic-mathematic knowledge, as well as to establish connections via curricular integration methodologies. Implementation of the designed educational escape room (EER) occurs after a co-design phase, while service-learning stages are present at the beginning and the end of each cycle.

> While the co-design of the EERs is carried out by a group of five cooperating students, the designed experiences are implemented in different schools of the province (to date, seven CEIPs have been cooperating with the project), so more than 200 schoolchildren have already participated in the project. The transcribed experiences are then used to carry the didactic analysis and to develop curricular elements/professional competencies of the students participating in line 2. Summarizing, to date:


The presented EER was co-designed by one of the five cooperating students, as a previous step of her final career work, let us label her as "cooperating student #4" (CS#4). She participated in designing EERs (as part of the first stage of the 2-year cooperation) prior to designing a whole EER by herself. The experience of this student takes the authors' attention due to her initial bad emotional relation with the mathematics discipline, while exhibiting high performance in other areas. Knowing her math-phobia, this student requested to be incorporated in the group of cooperating students as a way to go further in her didactic-mathematical knowledge. Researchers seized the opportunity to connect her fears (the mathematics) with her passions (the music).

CS#4 started developing EER tasks as part of the "designer team", following the conventional cycle proposed in Figure 2 for research line 1. She had the opportunity to implement a team-designed EER during the first year of cooperation (prior to the 2020 pandemic situation). CS#4 had completed her conventional didactic-mathematic formation available in the "primary education degree", so she was familiar with the design criteria, [27] as well as the didactic situations theory [35]. Her goal was to establish connections among the mathematic and musical knowledge in the frame of an EER, so that the narrative and tasks contained concepts, procedures, strategies, and skills from both disciplines. This report focused on CS#4 achievements due to the limited extension of the manuscript. However, achievements of the complete "designer team" are also briefly presented and discussed.

#### *3.3. Design Guidelines*

Some educational escape rooms design guidelines are available in literature [36,37], lacking, in some cases, scientific references supporting such guidelines. The literature has plenty of "false" escape rooms [38,39]: Players are accompanied by the teacher or the escape room experience is reduced to an "opening a box" in a conventional lecture. Indeed, in such kind of approaches, players do not have to escape from any room. Educational escape rooms are yet in an emergent situation, so there is still some misinformation and confusion.

#### 3.3.1. EER Design Criteria

The previously described situation sets the point to establish specific criteria for defining "what an educational escape room is". In this regard, design criteria were established by the authors as presented in [27], so that students can apply such criteria when designing their proposals. Design criteria can be summarized as follows:


Most of these criteria are coincident with traditional parameters used for designing and scheduling conventional educational situations [42].

#### 3.3.2. EER Experience Analysis Model

As part of the formative process, students are committed to carrying a didactic analysis of the implemented experiences. Didactic analysis is a common term used in didactic of the mathematics' research and includes a set of concepts and methods widely used by research groups, highlighting conceptual and procedural aspects [43]. In this project, a validated model created by Font [44] has been used. However, such a model was designed to perform the mathematic education practice analysis, while the experience proposed by the student aims to be curricularly integrated. This implies that Font's model was to be "expanded" to cover the range of music-related practices. Such "expanded model" was co-designed by the student CS#4 in touch with the multi-disciplinary team of researchers in charge (authors of this manuscript). The resulting model is briefly presented as a result in the present contribution.

#### *3.4. Evaluation: Tracking Students' Learning Process*

Evaluation is an essential part of every learning-teaching process. When considering how to evaluate students, one has to realize that different evaluation tools should provide different information [45]. Therefore, researchers designed a sequence of tasks, deliverables, and evaluation tools to assess students' performance. For example, to track the students' learning process, face-to-face and online meetings were scheduled. Furthermore, deliverables were required as part of the students' practice interaction with schools:


In parallel, students were co-designing the EERs according to the documented schoolchildren's difficulties. The design of the EER was tracked by meetings and interviews with the researcher, so that the creative process was not interrupted but boosted by new ideas. That is, the evaluation is conceived here as a way to support students in their creative look for didactic-mathematical knowledge [46]. The different evaluation tools, tasks, and learning goals are summarized in Table 1.


**Table 1.** Deliverables and evaluation tools used in this research.

#### **4. Results and Discussion**

While the co-design of the EERs is carried out by a group of five cooperating students, the designed experiences are implemented in different schools of the province (additional information on the characteristics of the sample is provided in Section 3.2). The proposed experience [47] was co-designed to be implemented in a specific school with a medium-low social-cultural and economic level. All activities were designed to fit the sixth academic course of the Spanish Primary Education curricula, as well as to fit the psychological characteristics of students aged between 11–12 years. The whole escape room experience was designed to be autonomously accomplished in 45 min. Mathematical tasks of the presented experience were designed to connect spatial orientation, spatial quantification, maps' interpretation, problem-solving skills, and mathematical reasoning. Mathematical tasks were designed to fully connect with music-related concepts such as active audition, timbral source recognition, and music style recognition. Finally, the proposal was designed to be solved by heterogeneous groups of 4–5 schoolchildren and to mobilize contents and skills from different academic fields: Mathematics (logic, arithmetic, geometry, and spatial orientation) and music (active listening, audio-visual timbre identification, and musical genres).

#### *4.1. Result 1: Adapting the Original Didactic Analysis Model*

As a service-learning approach, the "analysis of the situation" and difficulties reported by CEIPs set the starting point of the experience (see Figure 2). Since students have to reply to the CEIP-reported difficulties, the following research questions emerge: Can an educational escape room be used to work music and mathematic knowledge? How can music and mathematics didactic situations be analyzed? To provide the initial literature, students are initiated in Font's model [44], applying such a model to analyze pure mathematic didactic situations. Once the students became familiar with the original model, they were invited to propose slight modifications to be introduced in the model (so that it covers a music-mathematical analysis). In this section, we present the adaptation of the original Font's model co-designed by CS#4 and the authors.

#### 4.1.1. Identification of Musical and Mathematical Practices

This level of analysis focuses on actions with different natures (discursive, operative, etc.) that schoolchild-players have to do in order to solve the situation-problem. As the problem in the EER belongs to different branches of knowledge, the analysis of the implemented experience should differentiate musical practices from mathematics. However, when involving students in situations of curricular integration problems, it may happen that the practices developed coincide in form, not in content.

#### 4.1.2. Knowledge and Practice

In Font's model, it is clear that students have to mobilize mathematical concepts and skills which enable a proper interpretation of the obtained results. Therefore, the language used as well as the procedures and arguments (as a fundamental part of the mathematic reasoning) have to be analyzed.

Taking the literature as a reference [48,49], music-related declarative and procedural knowledge ("knowing that" vs. "knowing how") should be included in this level, due to its similarity with the original design of the model [50]. "Knowing music" involves both, the assimilation of contents (facts, propositions, theoretical systems, etc.) and the development of specific skills (such as audition, interpretation, and creation [48]). Musical declarative knowledge should be meaningfully connected to the proposed situation-problem. On the other hand, a proper analysis of the musical procedural knowledge should contemplate:


#### 4.1.3. Interactions and Conflicts

The treatment of the interactions produced during the problem-solving process must be analyzed [44]. The different activities which compose the whole EER should motivate the communication among the participants. Such communication might involve different parameters, such as cognitive, epistemic, interactional, etc.

#### 4.1.4. Norms

This level of analysis involves the creation of norms and generalities derived from the musical and mathematical practice.

#### *4.2. Discussion 1: Towards a Curricular Integration Analysis Model*

Based on the co-design of the "expanded didactic analysis model" and as a consequence of the multi-disciplinary research team co-authoring this manuscript, the need for a concretion of the indicators which are mobilized in a curricular-integration proposal arises. Taking the previous work of J. Torres as a reference [16], we define the following indicators, which might be checked in order to validate a curricular integration proposal:


The previously mentioned items might be useful to establish and design a model to study curricular integration approaches. These items emerge as a consequence of the adaptation of Font's model [34] to fit with a curricular integration perspective. It can be concluded that the effort made by CS#4 has been fruitful not only from the formative point of view, but from the research output achieved. The similarity of the presented items with that of the original Font's model is a consequence of the common roots of the music and mathematical knowledge [53].

#### *4.3. Result 2: Extract of the Student's Proposal*

The complete and original proposal made by CS#4 is stored at RODIN [47], which is the institutional repository of Research and Learning Objects of our university. A translated, reduced version is available as supplementary material #1 for this manuscript. However, an extract of the proposal is presented here so a view of its formative potential (for both the student who was designing the proposal and the schoolchild playing the game) can be assessed.

The original proposal is composed of three "missions" to be accomplished by the players during a 45 min EER experience. As the complete experience could not be reproduced here, a view of one of the activities is presented. In this activity, players can use an audio-recorded message to deduce the path followed by a thief. The corresponding audio track is available as supplementary material #2 for this manuscript. Using the audio, the schoolchild should track the thief's path on a map (whose construction was the final activity of the previous mission). Once the path is drawn on the map, a combination of

directions arises. Such a combination shall be coded in "arrows" and the code shall be introduced in a padlock to proceed to the next activity (see Figure 3).

**Figure 3.** Extract of the student's proposal. This figure corresponds to the clue (**a**) that should be used to solve a problem combining a map (**b**) and an audio source (Supplementary Material #2). By listening to the audio, students should track the path of a thief in the provided map. The translation of such path to "directional arrows" could be then introduced on the directional padlock, opening the next mission of the EER. Directional arrows which code the mentioned path are superimposed to the original map (white arrows, not provided by the student-player).

#### *4.4. Discussion 2: Didactic Suitability of the Proposal*

In the particular case of an EER, the curricular content as well as the tools, guides, and supports have to fit with the specific characteristics of the course and school (in order to preserve the flow state). Furthermore, other key elements should be considered when analyzing the didactic suitability of a proposal. In this section, a didactic suitability analysis of the student's proposal is carried out, according to literature [50].

#### 4.4.1. Epistemic Suitability

Epistemic suitability aims to evaluate the implementation of institutional knowledge. From the point of view of the mathematic-related competencies, knowledge and mathematical procedures mobilized on the EER shall be considered "good mathematics" (which is useful in daily life). We consider that this item is fulfilled due to the agreement with the on-service teachers of the school. Indeed, the curricular topic (spatial-related knowledge and spatial orientation) was specifically chosen for its direct application. Concerning the music-related competencies, the knowledge and procedures mobilized in the EER refer to the active audition of sound fragments, as well as to the visual and timbral-auditory identification of different musical instruments. The latter means a concrete curricular application focused on the musical experience, an approach that should be meaningful for the students' integral development.

#### 4.4.2. Cognitive Suitability

The way in which the activities are distributed throughout the formative process is also an item to be considered on the assessment of the didactic suitability of a proposal. The designed proposal was developed in the frame of a conventional course and in agreement with the CEIP, so that the knowledge to be used in the room should be at a reasonable distance to what the students already knew. This is to ensure that cognitive conflicts, induced by cognitive limitations right in the moment of the experience, are overcome through experimentation and peer-to-peer discussion.

In the particular case of mathematic concepts mobilized in this proposal, the concepts are well fitting to those presented in literature [54], as part of the NTCM standards [41]. In the particular case in this proposal, the mathematic concepts can be listed as: Itinerary description and coding, itinerary building and interpretation, describing positions and displacements, representing positions and displacements in maps, etc. Musical concepts mobilized in this proposal fit well with the established standards, being interrelated with the mathematic concepts. Such interrelation is concreted in the active audition and the fragmented sound story which contributes to the identification of the itinerary. To build the corresponding itinerary, musical instrument timbral differentiation and different musical style fragments are correlated to the different locations and displacements annotated on the schematic map.

#### 4.4.3. Media Suitability

Here, the grade of adequacy of the materials and tools provided is discussed. In the proposed experience, the audio, speaker, paper, pencil, maps, padlock, radio communication, etc. are provided to the student-players. Such resources may help solve the problem by applying different strategies. Concerning the use of the tools, from a mathematic point of view, the provided resources ease the establishment of the code by providing a "squared pattern" on the map (see Figure 3b), which clarifies the possible paths, locations, and displacements. However, there are some aspects which may induce confusion. Particularly, the moment in which each "turn to the left/right" has to be made, may induce some confusions (see Figure 4). To solve this, a token/model of the thief could be provided, fixing its original position so that no mistakes on the final code are induced (note that both final codes are similar, differing on the starting position). Therefore, extrinsic difficulties could be presented on the experience, induced by the misinterpretation of the provided tools.

**Figure 4.** Two possible answers for the proposed activity (Figure 3). Solution (**a**) will open the padlock, while solution (**b**) will be considered as a wrong answer. (**c**) Shows the different codes obtained.

Concerning the musical resources used in the proposal, students would use a speaker to listen to the sound-story. Auditory and visual tools (which are the speaker and schematic maps) should provide enough support to solve the activity. The provided sound story can be reproduced on demand. Again, there is a complementary music-to-mathematics relation so that auditory and visual tools are meaningfully connected.

#### 4.4.4. Interactional Suitability

Interactional suitability is the grade in which the activity allows identifying and solving semiotic conflicts by negotiating meanings. The presented proposal aims for peerto- peer discussions since the experience is designed for five simultaneous players, which should negotiate mathematical terms such as "left", "right", "turn over", "in front of" or "advance". Relative positions and displacements must be coded in order to accomplish the activity, so the different perspectives of the map may induce discussions among players. This would require a negotiation about "which one is the right perspective" in order to reach a consensus on the code to be introduced on the padlock.

In the proposed EER, musical aspects are fully related and connected to the mathematical aspects. The EER requires the recognition of sound sequences in the sound story which determines the displacements in the schematic map in Figure 3 (the appropriate sequence of sounds-displacements will provide the code to the next activity of the EER). The potential interactional conflicts should be addressed by negotiation and discussion in a way that evidences auditory skills and the musical background of the students as a fundamental part of the activity, which are needed to accomplish the mission.

#### 4.4.5. Emotional Suitability

The grade of motivation and interest of the students during the formative process should also be assessed. We consider that the proposed experience has an optimum degree of emotional suitability due to the originality of the proposal, the multi-disciplinary approach, and the game-based-learning perspective. However, as no implementation of the proposal was possible (due to the COVID-19 pandemic), this item could not be properly assessed. Even so, previous experiences designed and implemented by students in the frame of the mentoring program [27] provide enough evidence of meaningful emotional suitability of EERs.

#### 4.4.6. Ecologic Suitability

Finally, the grade of fitting of the experience to the educational project of the school should also be considered. In this regard, we consider that ecologic suitability is quite appropriate since the topic, concepts, tools, and moment of implementation were negotiated with the on-service teacher due to the co-design approach.

#### *4.5. Professional Development Analysis*

A brief analysis of the professional development reached by CS#4 during the experience is presented in this section. The "16 roles model" [55] (which is based on the discussion presented by Azcárate in literature [56]) is used here to perform the analysis. Of course, there are deeper and more complex models (such as MTSK model [57], for example). However, such models are approachless for those not specifically instructed on the model. The selected model was chosen for its simplicity, comprehensibility, and accessibility (even for non-specialized researchers), while being a validated model useful for the research in didactic of the mathematics. The selected model is schematically presented in Figure 5. According to the 16 role models, the presented experience fits with the 11 roles of the teacher, which means that the complete experience has mobilized several professional roles and skills:

**Figure 5.** Role model used to analyze the professional development in this study. Roles mobilized during the experience have been filled in green.


The previously described roles are strongly related with the development of professional competencies, which are developed by integrating and transforming the knowledge acquired during professional experiences, solving real problems, and mobilizing didacticprofessional knowledge (according to literature [58], see schematic in Figure 6).

**Figure 6.** Schematic of the elaboration of "practice" professional knowledge (adapted from [53]).

Students develop different professional competencies depending on the moment of the experience: (i) Professional competencies needed while implementing EERs:


Additionally, (ii) professional competencies needed while developing EERs:


#### *4.6. CS#4 Achievements: A Love-Hate Tale*

While we have presented several data concerning the whole students' "designer team", this manuscript focuses on the formative process of one of the students (CS#4) due to her initial "math-phobia". To provide evidences of the evolution on the perceptions of CS#4, Table 2 summarizes some answers to questionnaires. Such questionnaires were provided to CS#4 prior to the delivery of the core didactic of the mathematic subjects of the conventional curriculum and once the core subjects and additional "specific formation" was delivered. Meaningful changes in the perception of this student are evidenced. Particularly, her vision of the mathematic knowledge seems to have evolved from an algorithmic-centered perspective to a perspective where reasoning, strategy development, and hypothesis/discussion dynamics are much more relevant. Comparing the responses "before and after" the whole experience is delivered, we observe that:

• CS#4 relation with the mathematical discipline is meaningfully improved (her rating rises from 2 to 4).


We can summarize that, while some insecurities still remain (concerning her perceived ability to conduct mathematical lessons), connections to other subjects and areas are more relevant for her, so that the experience seems to have fostered her capacity to "identify mathematical knowledge" in a wide variety of situations.

On the other hand, her perception about the applicability of mathematical knowledge has gained some relevance, making emphasis on connections among curricular areas and application of the knowledge in real-life scenarios.


**Table 2.** Extract of questionnaires provided to cooperating student #4 (CS#4) and a comparison of her responses with other students before and after the experience.


**Table 2.** *Cont.*

## *4.7. Students' Achievents: Educational Goals*

The whole group of students was invited to develop their final degree thesis to complete the whole formative experience. This was a challenge for most of these students. Indeed, the participant students perceive the mentoring program as an opportunity to improve their mathematical skills, but most of them felt some anxiety with the idea of developing the final degree thesis focusing on the mathematical knowledge. The final degree thesis should consist of a 50–60-page document summarizing their experience, showing the theoretical background and evidencing a learning process. Furthermore, it should be defended on a committee and was mandatory to obtain the teacher's degree. Figure 7 shows a radar plot of the evaluation of professional skills corresponding to all the participant students. Professional didactic-mathematical knowledge was evaluated using the tools and tasks presented in Table 1. To the authors' consideration, the final degree thesis committee reports are a key aspect fact to be considered for the evaluation of the performance of the whole experience, thus it is included in Figure 7.

**Figure 7.** Radar plot of the evaluation of professional didactic-mathematical knowledge and final degree thesis score of the participant students. The CS#4 plot is filled in green to highlight her specific performance.

Examining Figure 7, it can be observed that students succeed on all of the items related to mathematical knowledge. Concerning the didactic knowledge, some students still fail in identifying and managing the schoolchildren difficulties. While the size of the sample is too small to provide fully reliable conclusions, Table 2 and Figure 7 provide enough evidences of a positive evolution on both: Didactic and mathematical knowledge of participant students.

	- Conceptual understanding aims to check the global domain of the different mathematical concepts and its different interpretations. This is what is conventionally said to "know mathematics" in its most traditional way. Data presented in Figure 7 show that all students are presenting good/very good conceptual understanding.
	- Procedural fluency is related to the ability to efficiently use the mathematical concepts, regarding the precision and flexibility. Figure 7 shows meaningful differences among students, which can be explained by a different level of mathematical practice.
	- Strategies development is another item which shows meaningful differences among students. This item is related to the ability to identify a variety of perspectives to solve a problem, which should lead to the choice of an optimum and viable strategy. Most of the students still show a wide margin for improvement in this field.
	- The ability to connect mathematical knowledge to real-life situations is taken into account in the "connectivity" item. This item is particularly important in a curricular integration approach. It can be observed that all the participant students' score above 5/10, but some students still show limited ability to re-contextualize the mathematical knowledge.
	- The ability to identify and manage schoolchildren's difficulties is closely related to students' self-abilities to overcome their own difficulties. This may explain the obtained result, with two groups of students clearly differenced. While students 3–4-5 show a remarkable ability in this field, students 1–2 fail in identifying schoolchildren's difficulties, which is coherent with the results obtained in the "mathematical knowledge" evaluation.
	- Context fitting and didactic transpositions are key professional skills. Teaching has to be adapted to the specific knowledge of the learner. Indeed, teachers should explore the previous ideas of the schoolchildren prior to the design of a lesson. In our experience, students' ability to fit to the context could be considered as "good" for all participants.
	- Classroom management skill is the best scored skill in average. It is related to the ability to manage conflicts, structure schoolchildren, and coordinate the learning process in a learning-teaching experience.
	- Design and scheduling ability is related to the "context fitting ability", since no good design can be performed without context. Scheduling a proper sequence of problems or ideas (even in a 45-min escape room) is a key aspect to be considered. Figure 7 evidences that, while all students score above 5/10, there is still some margin to improve.

This result supports the usefulness of the mentoring program, evidencing that additional and specific didactic-mathematical education may help change the situation exposed in the Introduction (see Figure 1). Finally, authors would like to emphasize that the evolu-

tion of the five cooperating students was made by annotations, questionnaires, interviews, and deliverables: These items could not be attached to this manuscript (they are handwritten and/or presented in Spanish language). However, relevant evaluation notes are presented in Table 2 and Figure 7.

#### **5. Conclusions**

This manuscript presents and analyzes an extract of a proposal made by one student (a trainee teacher which was part of a five-member group). Such a proposal was designed in the frame of a mentoring program, whose aim was to explore the influence of a specific and additional formation on didactic and mathematical knowledge. Our approach was to "work mathematical concepts based on other curricular disciplines", so that students could use their "favorite topics" to expand their didactic and mathematical knowledge.

As teachers and researchers, the authors' aim was to establish a problem-basedlearning approach by applying gamification strategies. Previous results [27] indicate that educational escape rooms can be used to foster cooperation, motivation, and exploration, thus becoming an optimum tool for working mathematic-related content. Therefore, students were invited to design (in cooperation with different schools) educational escape rooms, covering curricular aspects. A co-design strategy with a service-learning perspective allows fitting the escape room design to the real needs of the schoolchild, also stimulating the implication of the participant students in the process.

This study focuses on the formative potential of "co-designing educational escape rooms in a service-learning perspective", evidencing the mobilization of professional skills and knowledge and showing a boost on the importance attributed to "reasoning", "development strategies", and other mathematic-related skills, which were previously perceived as secondary skills when considering the importance of "using algorithms". Furthermore, the mentoring program has been proven as useful for developing students' professional didactic-mathematical knowledge.

Analyzing our original objectives, we consider that: (i) The experience stimulates the capacity to use mathematic knowledge in non-conventional contexts, (ii) the student shows a positive evolution in their relation with the mathematic knowledge, and (iii) mathematical competencies have been meaningfully connected to other disciplines in the frame of an integrated curriculum approach. Therefore, we consider that educational escape rooms are suitable tools to build problem-based situations with an integral curriculum perspective. We also consider that co-designing educational escape rooms fosters the development of trainee teachers' professional skills, mobilizing specific professional didactic-mathematical knowledge.

On the other hand, during the experience accumulated experience (considering the presented manuscript and previously published experiences [27]), we have detected three main obstacles to overcome in order to develop/apply EER. The first is to establish a clear narrative with a strong relation to the problems presented in the EER, so that all activities are narratively connected in a meaningful way. The second is to create connections among subjects, promoting an integrated view of the knowledge. In addition, the third is the design of real and meaningful problems which requires reasoning, experimentation, argumentation, and calculation, overcoming the pen-paper based activities.

During the experience, key didactic-mathematical professional skills were evaluated. In doing so, we have detected specific skills whose development requires special attention in future editions of the mentoring program. Thanks to this perspective, we have detected that the key competencies mobilized by the students during the development process were: (i) Meeting the curriculum, (ii) understanding the basic principles and fundamental laws of the experimental, social, and exact sciences, (iii) developing and evaluating appropriate teaching resources able to promote the acquisition of basic skills in students, (iv) developing problem-solving skills, and (v) establishing connections among subjects and developing a problem-solving perspective strongly related to real problems.

Finally, the 2020 pandemic scenario prevents us from implementing this specific experience. However, other EER experiences have been implemented in the frame of the mentoring program. As a result, we consider that the key competencies mobilized during the application of an EER experience are: (i) Meet and promote interaction processes, cooperation strategies, and team-working, (ii) promote educational and scientific values (for an active and democratic citizenship), fostering the democratic education of citizens and the practice of critical social thinking, (iii) identify, report, and collaborate in the treatment of learning difficulties by identifying and planning the resolution of educational situations that affect students with different abilities and different learning rates, (iv) evaluate the curriculum content and teaching resources and its influence in the promotion of basic skills in students, and (v) communicative and interactional skills.

Future editions of the mentoring program should emphasize on developing specific students' skills. Particularly procedural fluency, strategies development, identification of difficulties, and problem design are skills to be specifically attended. We consider that designing and implementing educational, integrated, problem-based escape rooms constitutes an optimum procedure to expand students' competencies, as well as to explore didactic/mathematic knowledge in a meaningful way. Furthermore, this procedure allows students to explore and grow over their own limitations, while providing a service to local schools.

**Supplementary Materials:** The following are available online at https://www.mdpi.com/2227-710 2/11/3/131/s1.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, J.C.P.C.; Methodology, J.C.P.C. and P.O.G.; Validation, J.C.P.C. and S.R.G.; Formal Analysis, J.C.P.C.; Investigation, J.C.P.C. and P.O.G.; Resources, P.O.G.; Data Curation, J.C.P.C.; Writing—Original Draft Preparation, J.C.P.C.; Writing—Review & Editing, J.C.P.C.; Visualization, J.C.P.C.; Supervision, J.C.P.C. and S.R.G.; Project Administration, J.C.P.C.; Funding Acquisition, J.C.P.C. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research was funded by the grants sol-201900138517-tra of the "2019/20 Teaching innovation projects" of the Cádiz University, and PR2017-013 of the "2017–18 Program to promote and boost research and transfer of the Cadiz University".

**Institutional Review Board Statement:** All subjects gave their informed consent for inclusion before they participated in the study. Private information (which could be used to identify the participants) is not included in this document. This study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki, and the protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee of the GAMIMAT project.

**Informed Consent Statement:** Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study.

**Data Availability Statement:** Additional supporting data analyzed or generated during the study can be found in: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/10/9/213 (accessed on 16 March 2021).

**Acknowledgments:** The authors would like to thank the help and collaboration of Pilar Azcárate Goded and José María Cardeñoso Domingo. We would also like to thank the cooperating students: Ana Ruiz, Claudia Macías, Daniel García, and Antonio García. Finally, this experience would not be possible without the collaboration of the CEIPs of the province of Cádiz (particularly that of the CEIP San Juan de Rivera).

**Conflicts of Interest:** The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.

#### **References**


## *Review* **Escape Rooms in STEM Teaching and Learning—Prospective Field or Declining Trend? A Literature Review**

**Chantal Lathwesen and Nadja Belova \***

Department of Chemistry Education, University of Bremen, 28359 Bremen, Germany; c.lathwesen@uni-bremen.de

**\*** Correspondence: n.belova@uni-bremen.de

**Abstract:** In the last decade, game-based learning has received growing attention in educational contexts in general and science education in particular. A recent game trend, which has also found its way into STEM classrooms, is escape rooms. In this type of game, players have to work through several puzzles to achieve a specific goal (mostly to escape from an actual room). We conducted a systematic literature review to find out whether the "market" for such games is already saturated or if there is still potential for further development. After searching the common databases (ERIC, Web of Science, and Google Scholar, as well as the German database FIS Bildung), we analyzed 93 journal articles, book chapters, and conference papers in English and German from the following domains: chemistry, physics, biology, mathematics, computer science, general science (interdisciplinary), environmental science, and medicine. We selected the ones that targeted a specific educational level (primary, secondary or tertiary education) and were designed for formal educational settings. It transpired that there is a need for more easily adaptable escape rooms as well as for more empirical evidence on their actual effects.

**Keywords:** gamification; escape room; review

#### **1. Introduction**

Gaming is a universal phenomenon. Baby animals and human children play games in which they test and get to know their bodies and the surrounding world. They play just for the sake of playing—without knowing anything about the game's features or effects. The concept of playing is a fundamental part of human activity and can be found in various forms in all cultures and societies around the world [1]. When it comes to the effects of playing, prominent psychologists and educational researchers such as Montessori and Piaget have acknowledged the value of playing for the development of children over hundreds of years [2]. Vygotsky (1980) described games as providing opportunities for children to experience scenarios they are not yet able to live through in real life [3]. Thus, the importance of games for one's development has led to the inclusion of game-based settings for learning purposes [4] both in lower and upper secondary as well as in higher education. When studying the extensive literature on gamification and game-based learning it becomes obvious that the educational goals described in the literature are quite diverse, ranging from the promotion of content knowledge over motivation towards fostering collaboration and argumentation skills [5]. On the other hand, the evidence on actual learning outcomes fostered by games remains quite inconsistent [6]. Nevertheless, there undoubtedly are positive effects of educational games, such as an increase of motivation, as well as some quality criteria which can help to create games which are not only entertaining but also promote specific educational goals [7].

The literature indicates that game-based learning has received increasing attention some researchers even consider educational games to be one of the biggest "hypes" of the last decade in the educational context [8] (p. 5). Game-based learning (GBL) [9] embraces activities which employ game mechanics for learning purposes, which leads us to the

**Citation:** Lathwesen, C.; Belova, N. Escape Rooms in STEM Teaching and Learning—Prospective Field or Declining Trend? A Literature Review. *Educ. Sci.* **2021**, *11*, 308. https://doi.org/10.3390/ educsci11060308

Academic Editors: José Carlos Piñero Charlo, María Teresa Costado Dios, Enrique Carmona Medeiro and Fernando Lloret

Received: 28 May 2021 Accepted: 16 June 2021 Published: 21 June 2021

**Publisher's Note:** MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

**Copyright:** © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).

concept of gamification. Gamification is commonly defined as the changing of processes that are not games through the implementation of a game or at least elements of one [10]. Here, game mechanics are explicitly used to follow concrete educational goals and solve specific problems [4].

Commonly mentioned elements for gamification in learning and education are story, dynamics, mechanics, collaboration, goal-oriented design, a set of rules, and technology [4,11] some of these are mostly applicable to digital games. However, this does not mean that specific elements *must* be used for gamification in learning and education, and using many gamification elements does not ensure more effective gamification or better results [12]. The challenge for educators is to choose necessary gamification elements to create an integrated solution that facilitates learning and education [4]. Based on the research findings available so far, Tsekleves et al., (2016) as well as Kim et al., (2018) developed several quality criteria that educational games should possess to increase the likelihood of motivational as well as educational outcomes. Games in educational frameworks should, among other things, be aligned with the curriculum, have clear learning goals like progression or repetition, be interactive, and contain aspects which can be used for assessment and feedback purposes thus allowing students to check their own progress [4,7].

Whoever plays steps out of their everyday experience and in a sense overrides it to immerse themselves in a game world. This phenomenon is addressed in the concept of the "flow theory" [13]. Here, the state of "flow" is described as a total absorption by a task which is both challenging and enjoyable. Such a totally immersive recent game trend is the so-called escape room. Escape rooms are a relatively new game concept that has been gaining popularity since around 2012 [14]. According to Nicholson (2015), an escape room is a physical adventure game in which the players have to work through various puzzles and tasks in a collaborative manner in order to achieve an overarching goal within a certain time limit [14]. Usually this consists of escaping from one or more rooms. Alternatively, the players must complete a specific task as part of the respective story, such as solving a criminal case or finding a hidden treasure. Before the game begins, the game master informs the players about the rules, the safety instructions, the general process, and the goal of the escape room. If there is a background story, the game master introduces the participants to the game, for example by reading an old diary entry. Then the door of the room is locked and the timer is started. Within the time limit, the players must use the objects they have discovered and decipher clues to solve the puzzles in order to advance in the game. During this time, the game master only acts as an observer and can provide assistance to the group if necessary. The game ends when the time runs out or the group has reached the goal. Over the course of the last decade, the game concept has been constantly further developed, characterized by an increase in the diversity of puzzles, a stronger integration of the story, thematically and technically more complex room design and, more recently, an increase in digitization [15,16]. In addition to physical escape rooms, due to their increasing popularity and the needs of different areas of application, other formats have been developed, including escape books, breakout boxes or home kits, augmented reality or virtual reality escape rooms, and digital escape games [17].

An integral part of escape rooms are puzzles. In commercial escape rooms, a distinction is made between two different types of puzzles: mental and physical puzzles [16]. To solve the first, clues must be discovered, deciphered, and related to each other. This requires cognitive skills and logical thinking. The counterpart to this are physical puzzles or tasks in which real objects or parts of the room have to be moved to find the solution. They are more time-consuming and represent cognitive relief. Both types of puzzles are also used in combination. Despite the variety of possible puzzles, three basic structural components can be identified: a problem, a hidden solution, and a reward [16]. To receive the reward, players must first decipher the puzzle and complete the resulting challenge. Often the solution is already hidden in the puzzle itself. The reward may include new puzzle pieces, clues or objects.

Educational escape rooms represent a creative learning environment that combines formal and informal learning. The game concept is adopted, adapted to the needs of the target group, and linked to the required content-related and process-related skills. Educational escape rooms can be developed for all levels of educational institutions and for a wide variety of topics [18]. One of the primary goals of educational escape rooms is the playful learning of new subject matter and skills as well as the repetition, deepening, and transfer of existing knowledge. In addition, the students are made aware of the effects of their own behavior on themselves and others. Self-confidence, social interaction, and the appreciation of different perspectives are also strengthened [19]. In contrast to the regular tasks of the students, the puzzles in an educational escape room do not contain a directly visible work assignment. This is only implied and must first be developed by the learner with the help of the information [14], representing probably the biggest challenge both for students and teachers (who must step out of their comfort zone to allow such totally open settings). A school implementation of educational escape rooms requires an adaptation of the game concept due to the spatial conditions and the size of the learning group [14]. In contrast to commercial escape rooms, their school equivalent consists in 78.9% of cases of only one room [17]. Consequently, the objects placed in it must be clearly differentiated from the other objects in the room for the pupils, for example by marking them with a logo [20]. Due to the spatial and financial resources of the schools, educational escape rooms should be cost-efficient and spatially reversible, so that the thematic design of the room can only take place in a reduced form [21]. Educational escape rooms have great potential in the school context, regardless of the necessary modifications. The game concept is favored equally by both sexes, takes different learning styles into account, and is particularly suitable for interdisciplinary learning [14]. It is also a motivating, student-centered teaching method in which learners take responsibility for their own learning process. Teachers take on an observing role during the game as a game master. They may only provide support to a certain extent upon request from the pupils. This gives learners the opportunity to independently develop their own ideas, strategies, and solutions, to actively pursue them and, if necessary, to evaluate them. In addition, the pupils are encouraged to use their existing knowledge and skills in an unconventional way to solve the puzzles [19]. Such a student-active, playful approach promotes communication, collaboration, creativity, problem-solving skills, and critical thinking, and can have a positive influence on both the motivation and commitment of the students [16].

The game concept of the escape rooms has gained increasing popularity in the school context in general and in STEM education in particular in recent years. Hardly any science education journal has been without a corresponding article, and the topic has also been present at large international conferences. Thus, the following questions have arisen: what is the current status of the development of STEM-related escape rooms? Which goals do the escape rooms available so far pursue? For which educational levels as well as subjects are escape rooms mostly arranged? So far, no systematic reviews on this topic have been conducted. We analyzed the literature to answer these questions, identify research gaps, and shed light on whether the escape room hype can be considered outdated or whether there is still much to develop and to inquire.

#### **2. Materials and Methods**

We conducted literature database searches for the keywords "escape room", "exit game", "escape lab", "escape game", and "breakout" in combination with the STEM education domains science, chemistry, physics, mathematics, and biology education. The search was carried out using the Web of Science and ERIC database, as well as Google Scholar. The databases were selected purposefully. The Web of Science can be considered as the most scholarly based database only including quality journals that fulfill the criteria of being international, peer-reviewed, and recognized within the scientific community. ERIC is a database that also covers publications in education from other sources, like conferences. Google Scholar analyses all publications on the internet and ranks them according to a

certain algorithm which mainly depends on their popularity. With this search there is no proof of complete comprehensibility, but it is suggested that there is chance that most of the relevant publications in this topic can be found. We also searched the German database "FIS Bildung" with the same keywords in German which led to 17 hits. The relevant ones (only two in total) had already been found in the international databases due to the fact that they had an English abstract. Thus, this review is limited to publications in English and German. Hits resulting from the combinations of all the above-mentioned keywords totaled 67 in ERIC and 96 in the Web of Science. Google Scholar alone yielded about 2750 hits for the timeframe 2007 and 2021. The search was conducted within the last two weeks of February 2021.

The results of ERIC and the Web of Science were individually analyzed. Prior to this, we formulated inclusion and exclusion criteria for the relevant publications. The inclusion criteria were as follows: we included all versions of educational escape games (tabletop, analogue/digital, books), which took place in a formal educational setting or an informal educational setting with a clear educational objective targeting preschool, primary, secondary, or higher education. The papers all contained a clear description of the setting (content, target group, format, types of puzzles) and were aimed at STEM education (chemistry, biology, physics, math, computer science, health care, medical, nursing and natural sciences in general). We excluded escape games that did not target a specific education level, escape games for informal learning settings such as camps, libraries, or fairs, those without content knowledge goals or content related skills, as well as articles including the keywords in the wrong context (such as breakout rooms within videoconferencing tools). We did not have access to some publications, particularly those from teacher journals.

This led to a total of 37 relevant articles or book chapters. Sixteen additional publications were found by chain-referencing. The first 650 Google Scholar search results were also screened, resulting in 40 additional articles leading to a total of 93 articles making up the foundation of this review. The selected material was first classified according to general criteria: (i) educational domain (primary education, secondary education, tertiary education); and (ii) the topics covered (general science or a specific science/STEM subject such as medicine, chemistry, physics, biology or mathematics). Eight of the suggested settings were intended for primary education, 31 for secondary, and 58 for tertiary education (some of the papers were aimed at both secondary and tertiary levels). Table 1 shows the distribution among the domains. In a second round of categorization, the criteria chosen were learning objectives, theme, group size, format, organization of the puzzles, as well as the role of the teacher/instructor. The issue of reliability was approached by cross-checking of the coding among the authors. The examples selected for illustrating the analysis were chosen with respect to the type of publication: peer-reviewed articles in journals and books were given priority to other types of publications.

**Table 1.** Overview of the domains of the reviewed escape rooms (one of the publications was intended both for chemistry and physics lessons).


#### **3. Results of Educational Escape Rooms in STEM Education**

The first very noticeable result of our research was the large number of publications in the field of medicine (see Table 1). Escape rooms seem to be very common especially for the academic training of nurses. When it comes to the STEM domains, most of the examples were found for chemistry education, followed by mathematics and physics. The majority of the suggested games were intended for a collaborative approach with the students being divided into groups (ranging from two to ten people with the average being five students).

Thus, most of the games could be adopted in different class sizes. Only very few settings were aimed at single players. The play time ranged from 15 min to an entire day, with the average duration being 60 min. Analog settings prevail over solely digital ones: 12 chemistry, 2 biology, 1 general science, and all 6 physics escape games included experiments or lab-based activities. Few of the games only involved the simulation experiments in a digital learning environment. Only one escape lab was found. Nearly all escape rooms related to nursing, pharmacy, or medicine were designed as a simulation laboratory, where participants needed to apply lab and clinical skills in a realistic setting. When it came to the types of puzzles involved, crossword puzzles, mathematical tasks, and patterns were often used. The locks were mostly alphabetical or used numbers. The Supplementary Materials for this paper contain a table summarizing the main features of each escape room (e.g., types and number of puzzles, number of players, duration, domain, etc.).

#### *3.1. Educational Escape Rooms in Chemistry Education*

As already mentioned, a total of 15 publications were found dealing with escape rooms in secondary and tertiary chemistry education. Only seven of the papers targeted a specific topic and not a combination of several ones. The topics addressed were safety practices in the lab [22], structures and traits of polymers [23], the periodic table [24], the Leblanc process [25], chemical bonding [26], the galvanic cell [27], and the Solvay process [28]. The breakout activity by Nephew and Sunasee (2021) was created for academic institutions in order to make the obligatory safety training more interactive and engaging [22]. The goal of the activity is to open an actual box with three locks. The locks have to be opened using two different codes (numeric and alphabetic) and a key which is hidden in the laboratory. To open the locks, the participants must fulfill three hands-on activities: spill training, emergency response training, as well as waste disposal. In the first activity the players must come up with an order of contents of a spill kit to get rid of a reagent spill. Each content has an assigned letter which in the end makes up the code. This is generally a very common puzzle type for educational escape rooms. The puzzle on emergency response uses fluorescent clue numbers for which you need a black light flashlight to unveil them such little "playful" elements are also frequently used to make a setting more motivating and challenging. In the escape room on chemical bonding by Ang, Ng and Liew (2020) the first-year general chemistry students had to complete four puzzles (one group of students per puzzle) and a final collaborative puzzle at the end. Each group had to unveil a number for the combination lock. In one of the puzzles, the students had to compare the strengths of different bonds with the help of a model experiment using magnets with the strongest bond being the ionic one. Since "ionic" is spelled with five letters, the hidden number turns out to be five. A rather original idea and a different way of implementing the escape game context comes from Strippel, Schröder, and Sommer (2021) who constructed an escape box. The box is locked and can be opened by constructing a simple galvanic cell with a specific voltage. The voltmeter is connected to a microcomputer which controls the locking mechanism. As soon as the correct voltage is reached, the box is unlocked, and the reward can be retrieved [27].

Two escape rooms covered different aspects from a specific chemical sub-domain, namely analytical chemistry [29] and organic chemistry [30], with the first one being aimed at tertiary education. The setting by Groß and Schumacher (2020) covers main organic chemistry topics from the German secondary school curriculum (alcohols, aldehydes, carboxylic acids, coloring agents, esters) with one puzzle per topic. Thus, this experimental escape room setting can be used to review and consolidate the content knowledge. The context of this proposal is the kidnapping of a chemistry lecturer. The players are supposed to use his labor journal, which is also the structuring element of the game, to decipher the research, track down the kidnapper, and rescue the protagonist [30].

The remaining six proposals combined several thematic aspects from different domains of chemistry. Clapson et al., (2020) designed an escape game in a box format containing four hands-on activities on the following general chemistry topics: thin layer

chromatography, buoyancy, density, and a galvanic cell made out of zinc and copper [31]. For instance, in the activity on buoyancy, the learners compared the buoyancy of several pipettes in a plastic bottle filled with water. The correct order of the pipettes leads to a code that unlocks the next puzzle in the box. In the puzzle using a galvanic cell, the microscale cell is used to light up LEDs which are numbered. The numbers can then also be used for the lock. From our point of view, such scenarios can be difficult to adapt by other institutions due to the fact that the exact combination of these contents is needed.

#### *3.2. Educational Escape Rooms in Maths Education*

Out of the 13 publications, 7 targeted escape games in secondary math education, followed by primary (4) and tertiary (3). Escape games within the mathematical domain mainly fall into two subcategories: algebra [32] and geometry [33,34]. Algebra-themed escape games dealt with linear and quadratic equations [35], systems of equations [36], slope [37] and polynomials [38]. Geometry-themed escape games mainly addressed trigonometry [39], magnitudes and measurements [33,34,40]. The escape game of Arvanitaki and Skoumpourd (2019) is specially designed to teach students with visual impairment the concept of length [34]. To escape from the museum, they have to calculate and measure the distances between objects with their own steps and find specific measurement tools in the room. Movement and sense of touch are very important for understanding the concept of space and the properties and relationships of the objects in it. Therefore, the escape room is heavily dependent on physical tasks and uses a touchable roadmap and a SmartGuide obstacle detection device, so that students can navigate within the room. Additional topics addressed in the publications include logic [41], rational numbers [42] and calculus and cryptography [43]. Only one escape game does not specify its content-related learning objectives, saying it is based on the third grade curriculum [44]. Students take over the roles of investigators trying to unlock the case and disable the bomb. All teams have to work together and interact with veteran investigators, played by a group of parents. This collaborative approach is possible due to a multi-linear puzzle path, resulting in a meta-puzzle to unlock the bomb case. Small prizes and third grade certificates are handed out as rewards. An interdisciplinary approach can be found for two math escape games. Moura and Santos (2019) designed an analog escape game for the 7th grade combining the subdomain algebra with Portuguese literary work [32]. In "MathEscape", proposed by Galvas and Stascik (2017), students have to steal the solution of an old mathematical problem from the minister's office by solving 28 tasks. Nine tasks are non-mathematical, interdisciplinary tasks, such as mixing colors (arts), optic puzzles (physics), space orientation (physical education), comprehension (language), morse code (music), and using the periodic table (chemistry). In addition, mathematical tasks are used to revise and systemize knowledge about linear and quadratic equations. The research focuses on how the game enhances students' attitudes towards mathematics [35]. One digital and three hybrid math escape games were found, consisting of analog puzzles and digital locks [42], programmed puzzles and physical props [41], or augmented elements. Queiruga-Dios et al., (2020) designed an augmented, card-based escape game using the HP Reveal App to overlay specific images and objects [43]. When students scanned game items, they discovered videos, links, and other interactive elements. At the beginning a roadmap was given out, containing the game introductions, hint approach, puzzle path, and instructions. The goal is to stop a virus called WannaCry by unlocking the physical breakout box. For this, each color-coded group (blue, yellow, red, and green) had to solve three puzzles based on linear algebra, cryptography, or calculus. The second puzzle could only be solved if all groups worked together. An option to modify the game, so that the groups can compete against each other, is also given. Some escape games assign roles to the students in order to improve collaboration and structure the activity, e.g., resource manager, recorder/reporter, facilitator, or task manager [40,42]. This is mostly the case for primary or lower secondary escape games where self-organization within the groups may be more challenging for the learners. In most escape games that we reviewed hints are provided by the teacher in oral

form upon students' request. In some cases, hints are incorporated into the game materials in the form of clue cards [43], hintbooks [40] and hints in exchange [36]. Fuentes-Cabrera, Parra-González, López-Belmonte, and Segura-Robles (2020) designed a physical escape room with timed puzzles, meaning each puzzle had to be solved within a certain time limit [36]. If the time ran out before students solved the puzzle, they received a clue or a new puzzle. For each puzzle solved within the time limit students earned a badge, which they could exchange for a hint or extra points. The escape activity covers a whole teaching unit consisting of five linear puzzles. Puzzles, props, and clues were color-coded for each group, which seemed a great way to allow multiple groups to play the escape room at the same time.

#### *3.3. Educational Escape Rooms in Physics Education*

All six publications targeted secondary education. The escape games addressed the following topics: photovoltaic effect [45], physics of fluids [46,47], anti-matter [48] and electromagnets [49]. Monnot, Laborie, Hérbrard, and Dietrich (2020) do not specify the learning objectives of the described escape games [50]. The publication features a game maker approach, so different physical escape rooms and labs were designed by the students in groups of 5 to 10. Each of their escape rooms consisted of at least one locked box containing the exit key, included lab-based activities and targeted general chemistry and physics knowledge. Clues, videos, and detailed instructions were provided through a tablet. Two publications featured digital escape games. Hou and Chous (2012) developed a digital escape chamber where the students had to assemble an electromagnet and use it to get the key [49]. Fotovolt is a 2D point-and-click escape game for upper secondary education designed by Tulha, de Carvalho, and Coluci (2019) [45]. The game is based on constructionism theory and is integrated into a remote physics lab. A narrative or game goal is not mentioned, but there are six game phases dealing with the properties of light, electric energy, conductive materials, energy conversion, tension, and angulation. Two physical escape rooms addressed the physics of fluids, but contained different subtopics, like speed of efflux [47] or Pascal's law [46]. They both consisted of five linear puzzles and used envelopes as locks. Some physical escape games with hands-on or lab-based activities required advanced equipment, such as 3D pointers, x-ray machines or semiconductors [48], which makes them difficult for use in other educational settings. All mentioned physics escape games included lab-based activities.

#### *3.4. Educational Escape Rooms in Biology Education*

The biology escape games (3) were mainly designed for secondary education. Primary education was not targeted in our sample. Only Brady and Andersen (2019) developed a physical escape room for university students to review the course concepts of genetics analysis before the final exam [50,51]. In line with the learning objective, the theme firefly genetics was chosen. The proposed game cannot be played by multiple groups at the same time, due to the excessive use of physical space and props. In comparison to other escape rooms, the teacher had a more active role, verifying answers, giving instructions at specific stages of the game, guiding struggling groups, and handing out props, keys, and posters as puzzle rewards. The authors see the game master role of the teacher as a great way to observe students' problem solving and assess their aptitudes. Escaping from one or more rooms was the most popular goal for escape rooms in general. This was not the case for the biology escape games. The game goal in the biology domain was either to discover a secret [52], solve a crime [53], or to prove your worth and receive the Nobel Prize [51]. Bartlett and Anderson designed a tabletop escape game about decomposers and the process of decomposition. The narrative is set in a dystopian world where nearly all viable topsoil is lost. The only hope for mankind is to discover the secret research results of the shutdown lab. To solve the six puzzles students sorted pictures of "trash" (e.g., broken glass, a soda can, a tea bag), played a card game simulating the decomposition of different objects or calculating the C:N ratio. Customizable password-protected QR-codes

were generated as digital locks using QuickMark. This reduced the need for padlocked boxes and enabled the development of an entirely print-and-play version of the game. Healy (2019) also designed a tabletop escape game about entomology, including lab-based activities and live insects [53]. Students learn how insects can cause death and disease in humans and animals by solving a murder mystery and saving the falsely convicted John. Instruction cards and a set number of hint tokens are used, so that the teacher does not need to act as the game master. "The room of keys", developed by Mystakidis, Cachafeiro, and Hatzilygeroudis (2020), is an award-winning digital escape room about the structure and function of enzymes [54]. Prior to solving puzzles, students walk through a tutorial and expositional phase. The overall game play takes about 15 min. In addition to the tutorial phase the game includes simulated lab-based activities. The game provides audio and visual information to cover different learner types.

#### *3.5. Educational Escape Rooms in Computer Science Education*

More than half (7) of the 13 publications in the field of computer science targeted higher education, followed by secondary (4) and primary education (2). All of the publications aimed at promoting computational thinking (CK) as well as computer science problem solving [55]. Some common features of computational thinking include the logical organization and analysis of data, automated problem solving, and high efficiency as well as transferability of results [56]. In the scenario by Kahila, et al. (2020), for primary education, physical and virtual elements were combined [57]. The story of the game is that the children are sent to the Earth's orbit in a spaceship due to the fact that humankind has failed to stop climate change rendering the living conditions on Earth unhabitable. Now that the conditions have been restored, the children must solve some technical problems with the spaceship and plan how to land it safely. Many of the puzzles—mostly minigames—were hidden behind QR-codes distributed in the room. Due to the young target group, the games provided first insights into computational thinking—understanding of binary logic, basic ideas of program execution, decrypting codes, and so on. For instance, in one of the games the players had to find the most energy efficient route from the generator to the engines. In an escape room for 10th graders by Hacke (2019) students were sent on a spy mission [55]. They needed to identify the tasks of the next computer science exam stored on a tablet protected by a password and an alarm system in the room. The students had to solve three puzzles, for instance decrypting an encoded message, to unlock the tablet. One of the hints involved a digital camera which (after the memory card for it has been found) contained photos of objects in the room leading to further clues. López-Pernas et al., (2019) describe an educational escape room for higher education in a programming course (HTML, CSS, JavaScript etc.) for Bachelor students [58]. This game aimed at improving the students' knowledge of programming concepts. The story was built upon the challenge to decipher the genetic code of a vaccine against a deadly virus. The data leading to this code was contained in an unfinished application which was developed using the computer languages from the course. The students then had to rebuild the application and gain access to the code. While the games for primary and secondary education mainly focus on general computational thinking, this is an example of how scenarios for higher education include the content of the respective course.

#### *3.6. Educational Escape Rooms in General Science and Enviromental Science*

A total of five papers from the field of general science (STEM education) were identified in our review, three of them for secondary education. Veldkamp et al., (2020) designed an escape box for 15–16-year-old students containing analog and digital puzzles on different topics and socio-scientific issues such as climate change, plastic soup or infectious diseases [59]. The only proposal for primary education was published by Lin, Wang, Zhung and Wang (2017) [60]. They designed a fully digital escape room on the science behind papermaking. One scenario for higher education [61] focused on pre-service teachers as well as general concepts of astronomy (planets, satellites, etc.), mathematics (radius, perimeter), and science (density), under the overarching theme of sustainability. In an online setting, the pre-service teachers had to use their knowledge on these topics to complete a challenge given to them by the scientist Carl Sagan.

The two proposals from the field of environmental science both focus on higher education. Pater (2020) developed a game called "Unlock the Future" with the goal to increase the environmental attitudes and efficacy beliefs of the players [62]. The players need to "travel back in time" to stop climate change and save the earth. Chang (2019) followed a similar approach (dystopian future) but focused more on issues surrounding waste disposal [63].

#### *3.7. Educational Escape Rooms in Medicine*

As mentioned above, we were surprised by the numerous publications from the field of medicine (see Table 1). At this point, we would like to give a brief insight into the escape rooms in this domain. Many of the proposals (16) focus on the education of nurses. These games mainly focus on consolidating basic, routine procedures and concepts which frequently appear in a typical nursing working environment, for instance, the interpretation of laboratory results [64], improvement of patient care [65], or basic skills in clinical practice such as handling protective equipment or maintaining hand hygiene [66]. In a scenario called "operation outbreak", Frederick and Reed (2021) built upon the non-satisfactory results of a nursing exam and included content areas where scores had been the lowest (environmental cleaning, Spaulding classification, phases of anesthesia, surgical hand scrub, wound classification, patient safety, wound closure) [67]. In one of the eight puzzles, for example, the nurses had to put the steps of a surgical hand scrub in the correct order. After the intervention, an improvement in exam scores was observed.

Other escape rooms targeted medical, dentistry, and pharmacy students or healthcare professionals, also targeted at routine skills. In later professional life, these skills are often required to be carried out in certain stressful situations and under time pressures, just as in the game. From our point of view, this is one of the main reasons for the popularity of escape game format in the medical realm. Wilby and Kremer (2020) designed a short (five puzzles/quiz-based activities) escape room on basic knowledge of cancer and cancer treatment for medical students [68]. In one of them, the players had to find symptoms of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in the room, distinguish them from other symptoms, and put them in a specific order to obtain a code. In a game by Sanders, Kutzin, and Strother (2021), the players (healthcare workers) were locked in the simulation room by a serial killer and needed to escape by applying their knowledge of anion gap metabolic acidosis, pneumothorax, chest tube insertion, use of an ultrasound machine, as well as Brose low tape for pediatric resuscitations [69]. Among other activities, the players had to arrange a series of radiographs in the correct order or make a laryngoscope work by finding missing batteries.

#### *3.8. Empirical Research on the Effects of EER*

Most of the reviewed publications describe specific game scenarios with little, if any, evidence on their effectiveness. For example, Clapson et al., (2020) use a simple evaluation questionnaire with questions such as "If you could repeat this activity, what would you do differently?" for the test subjects' initial assessment of the game [31]. López-Pernas et al., (2019) argue that previous works on educational escape rooms have "failed to assess the impact of this sort of activities in terms of learning effectiveness" (p. 184221). However, learning effectiveness is not the only thing that may theoretically be measured using statistical tests or assessed using qualitative methods—aspects such as motivation, interest, student activation, and others may also be evaluated.

López-Pernas et al., (2019) used a pre-post-test research design to assess the learning effectiveness of their scenario [58]. The score difference was not only statistically significant but showed (especially for educational studies) a sizeable Cohen's d effect size (0.73). Chang (2019) implemented a control and treatment group design in a quite large undergraduate

course (*n* = 452) to test the effectiveness of her environmental science escape room [63]. She conducted focus group interviews after the game and used a pre- and post-questionnaire on environmental values, behaviors, and sense of agency, concluding that no significant differences between the two groups had been found when it came to changes in values, but significant differences were present as regards behavior changes. Only Chang (2019), as mentioned above, and Fuentes-Cabrera et al., (2020) used a control and treatment group design. The latter conducted an ad hoc questionnaire consisting of 32 items to research gender differences and a possible correlation between the dimensions achievement, anxiety, motivation, and autonomy. The authors found a statistically significant improvement of all four research dimensions in both groups, with the treatment group achieving higher results than the control group. Neither gender differences nor any kind of correlation could be found in the control group, whereas women had the highest level of anxiety and were the most motivated in the treatment group. At the moment there is no clear empirical evidence on the learning effect of escape games in comparison to a more traditional, lecturebased learning approach using a control and treatment group design. Some studies use previously established instruments to evaluate their games. Pater (2020) used the wellestablished GUESS scale [70] with nine subscales, including enjoyment, social connectivity, and visual aesthetics. Lin et al., (2017) used Kiili's flow scale (2006) [71] to measure the learners' state of flow, which turned out to be high. Yllana-Pietro, Jeong, and González-Gómez (2021) implemented a pre-post questionnaire measuring attitude, self-efficacy, and emotions towards science by running several statistical tests [61]. They observed an increase in positive attitude and high self-efficacy items, as well as the emotions "joy", "satisfaction" and "fun", but also negative emotions such as "nervousness" due to the unfamiliar online setting. There are quite a few studies using pre-post surveys or tests to measure the potential learning effect or affective outcomes, such as motivation, interest, and engagement, e.g., [43,51,54,60–63]. In particular, Berthod, Bouchoud, Grossrieder, Falaschi, Senhaji, and Bonnabry (2020) and Eukels' publications are to be mentioned. Berthod et al., (2020) found a significant increase in correct answers after the escape game activity. One month later, the same post-test was conducted again. Even then, 80% of the given answers were correct compared to 50% of correct answers in the pretest [72]. Eukel and his fellow researchers have developed multiple escape games for medical disciplines and researched their impact on students' content knowledge [73,74]. For example, Caldas, Eukel, Matulewicz, Fernández, and Donohoe (2019) conducted a pre- and post-assessment test. The post-test included the content-related questions of the pretest and an additional perception questionnaire. The assessment score improved significantly from 50% to 83.3%. To research whether escape games have a long-lasting learning effect, multiple post-tests need to be undertaken at different time intervals. It should be mentioned that none of the analyzed publications have researched which game components exactly influence students learning in a positive way. Therefore, thus far it cannot be postulated why the use of educational escape games benefits learning.

Some researchers rely on qualitative data to analyze students' interactions or to gain information that can potentially help to improve the game design. In a design-based research approach [75], Veldkamp et al., (2020) used classroom observations to evaluate the state of immersion of the students and formulate design principles for educational escape rooms [59]. Hacke (2019) conducted a video analysis of the students while playing (with over 200 participants) and analyzed the videos to identify participants' success in problem solving. In advance, he operationalized specific behaviors (e.g., systematic search for clues) that allowed for conclusions on the problem solving strategies [55].

#### **4. Discussion and Conclusions: Identifying (Research) Gaps**

As outlined above, playing and learning are closely connected, therefore, gamification in general as well as educational escape rooms in particular can be considered a "hot topic" in the STEM education community. Our literature review has shown that numerous proposals for the implementation of educational escape rooms in the field of STEM have

been published, especially in the last five years. Nevertheless, we were able to identify some gaps in the research and development on this topic. First of all, there is still a need for new proposals mainly in the subjects of physics and biology. Additionally, interdisciplinary scenarios covering several domains, as well as games from the field of environmental science, are still missing. Generally, there is a lack of interdisciplinary approaches. A positive finding is that most of the chemistry, physics, and biology settings use experiments to make the learning experience more varied and promote specific experimental skills which are highly relevant in these subjects. On the other hand, educators could consider creating games that are more simple, easily adaptable, less time-consuming games, and without the use of experiments. Our impression was that the escape rooms published so far were mainly adapted to the needs of a specific course or institution—this is understandable but limits the transferability of such proposals to other institutions and learning groups. The STEM education community would certainly benefit from a more systematic approach when it comes to covering standard school or higher education topics which are taught all around the world. As regards the levels of education for which the proposals are designed, most of them targeted tertiary education, so there is a great potential for development especially in the field of secondary education (and also primary education). Such a systematization can be achieved by several steps. First, we suggest implementing a database where all educational escape rooms available are collected and can be easily browsed—our review could be a starting point for this. Second, there is a need for a set of design principles for educational escape rooms. Veldkamp et al., 2020 outlined a first proposal on this issue which can serve as a basis for further discussions. Finally, there is a general need for more empirical evidence. Many of the publications we found were small-scale studies that used observations or feedback questionnaires. From our point of view, the following aspects can be of research interest: studies on how educational escape games affect motivation, collaboration, creativity, and problem solving; research on games that are set up to identify students' misconceptions or to confront them; as well as research on the effects of educational escape rooms for knowledge acquisition. Here, the potential research questions highly depend on the goals of the respective escape rooms. We realize that the goals differ depending on the domain. They vary from the promotion of content knowledge and scientific thinking (e.g., in chemistry, biology, or physics) to computational thinking (computer science) or the consolidation of routine procedures (medicine). Some of the available escape games are designed to be played remotely. It would be interesting to inquire as to whether such scenarios have comparable effects to live, physical escape rooms. When it comes to the technical implementation of the scenarios, we can say that while some of the games used digital settings, most of them can be considered to be quite low-tech. The potential future inclusion of virtual reality or augmented reality technologies will lead to new research interests on immersive learning environments with almost no spatial limitations.

In summary, educational escape rooms seem to be an engaging way to "gamify" STEM learning, however a much more systematic approach as well as more evidence is needed. Thus, educational escape rooms are not a declining trend yet, but scholars need to fill these existing gaps and create broadly adaptable frameworks in order to make full use of the potential of such teaching and learning scenarios.

**Supplementary Materials:** The following are available online at https://www.mdpi.com/article/10 .3390/educsci11060308/s1. Here we can provide a table showing all the analyzed results together with a short description of each escape room.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, C.L. and N.B.; methodology, C.L. and N.B.; investigation, C.L. and N.B.; writing—original draft preparation, C.L. and N.B.; writing—review and editing, C.L. and N.B. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research received no external funding.

**Institutional Review Board Statement:** Not applicable.

**Informed Consent Statement:** Not applicable.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.

#### **References**


## *Article* **Assessment of** *Scratch* **Programming Language as a Didactic Tool to Teach Functions**

**Eduardo Quevedo Gutiérrez 1,\* and Alberto Zapatera Llinares <sup>2</sup>**


**Abstract:** The objective of this research is to study the *Scratch* programming language as a didactic tool to teach functions. The introduction of didactic tools allowing comprehension in simple and attractive ways is required. Given the traditional teaching/learning system, it is necessary to organize participatory and collaborative dynamic classrooms, which allow the interaction of students in activities where the educator modifies his or her traditional role as an advisor and the students take a more active role in learning through their own effort. In this sense, three activities using the *Scratch* programming language are proposed: the first one refers to the linear and affine functions, while the second one deals with the quadratic function and the third one is related to the exponential function. The participants in this study were 30 future teachers. The study considers the combination of magisterial lessons and active didactic methodologies as demonstration method, cooperative learning and gamification, also including the applied assessment. The activities, methodologies and assessment were evaluated by the participants with results higher than 4 in 5-point Likert scale for all cases, preferring the active methodologies than magisterial lessons.

**Keywords:** assessment; computational thinking; functions; future teachers; *Scratch*

## **1. Introduction**

The recent study of 2016 conducted by the European Commission "Developing Computational Thinking in Compulsory Education, Implications for Policy and Practice" argues that in the past decade, computational thinking and its related concepts (for example, coding, programming or algorithmic thinking) are receiving increased attention in the educational field [1]. As a result, a lot of public and private implementation initiatives have arisen. Despite this widespread interest, the successful integration of computational thinking in compulsory education still faces unresolved issues and challenges [2]. Computational thinking as such was enunciated at the beginning of this decade. Jeannette Wing, Ph.D. in Computer Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), who is one of its greatest exponents, presented a definition focused on the use of computer concepts to carry out activities, from solving problems to understanding human behavior, going through systems' design [3]. Computational thinking is based fundamentally on two learning theories: the constructivism of Jean Piaget, a Swiss psychologist and pedagogue who defended the endowment of tools for the student to solve problems [4], and the constructionism of Seymour Papert, a mathematician, computer scientist and American educator born in South Africa, who proposed the construction of mental models to understand the world around us [5]. Both learning theories focus on the construction of elements, following the maker philosophy to solve problems.

**Citation:** Quevedo Gutiérrez, E.; Zapatera Llinares, A. Assessment of *Scratch* Programming Language as a Didactic Tool to Teach Functions. *Educ. Sci.* **2021**, *11*, 499. https:// doi.org/10.3390/educsci11090499

Academic Editors: José Carlos Piñero Charlo, María Teresa Costado Dios, Enrique Carmona Medeiro and Fernando Lloret

Received: 28 July 2021 Accepted: 31 August 2021 Published: 3 September 2021

**Publisher's Note:** MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

**Copyright:** © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).

#### *1.1. Scratch as a Computational Thinking Didactic Tool*

*Scratch* is a visual programming language developed by a team from MIT Media Lab, led by Mitch Resnick. *Scratch* is used by students, teachers and parents to create simple animations and interactions, fostering computational thinking, thus putting into practice the theses of Piaget and Papert [6]. The main contribution of *Scratch* is that it is intended for early age users, which makes it directly applicable as a didactic tool devoted to teaching programming to elementary students. Increasingly, students are interested in programming as a creator of different utilities, applications and games. This interest appears more and more at early ages. *Scratch* offers a perspective advanced in knowledge but simple in management [7]. As a matter of fact, *Scratch* is used in education for a wide variety of applications, such as mathematics competences [8], interdisciplinary works [9], videogames [10], logical thinking [11] or robotics [12].

There are several studies that use *Scratch* as a tool to work in mathematical-based problems. In [13], Rodríguez Martínez et al. considered the use of *Scratch* in problems focusing on the divisibility concepts of the greatest common divisor and the least common multiple, achieving a statistically significant improvement in the participants who solved problems using *Scratch*. In [14], Shahbari et al. engaged 18 prospective teachers in a sequence of mathematical problems that utilized *Scratch*, concluding that the role of the sequence side-by-side with the guidelines of the instructor, had an important role in supporting the developments of learner's meta-cognitive functions in mathematics problem-solving. *Scratch* has been also considered as a tool to teach geometry, using for instance a physical *Scratch*-based programmable artifact in order to design, implement and discuss geometry activities for primary school classes; results showed that it supposed a combination of mathematics learning opportunities for students and teachers [15].

In this paper, *Scratch* is used as a computational thinking didactic tool to teach functions. From the very beginning, since primary school courses, the acquisition of mathematical concepts through *Scratch* has been considered [13]. More specifically, the teaching of the Cartesian coordinate system, in accordance with the current educational curriculum, is a challenge for the teacher. The objective consists of students being able to describe positions and movements by means of coordinates, distances among points located in straight horizontal lines, parallelisms, perpendicularity, angles, turns, etc., using the geometric vocabulary [16].

This study considers the combination of magisterial lesson and active didactic methodologies, which are detailed in the following section, assessing the contents of the activities, the used methodologies and the applied assessment.

#### *1.2. Active Didactic Methodologies and Scratch*

The use of active didactic methodologies increases motivation and improves student learning autonomy in a significant way [17]. The motivation of the presented activities in this paper to show the teaching of the functions with *Scratch* is focused on proposing didactic alternatives. In this way, *Scratch* programming language is considered as a way to build the reality.

The challenge is to discern what strategies might be appropriate to be introduced in the curricula in order to achieve meaningful learning. Thus, given the traditional teaching/learning system, it is necessary to organize participatory and collaborative dynamic classrooms, which allows the interaction of students in activities where the educator modifies his or her traditional role as an advisor and the students take a more active role in learning through their own effort [18]. Therefore, a set of complementary active methodologies is sought, including the demonstration method, cooperative learning and gamification.

#### 1.2.1. Demonstration Method

This method provides lessons by exhibiting and demonstrating. It demonstrates things, events, rules and sequences of activities, either directly or through using instructional media, which is relevant to the subject matter or material that will be presented. The purpose of teaching using the demonstration method is to show the process of occurrence of an event according to the teaching materials, how they are attained and the ease to be understood by the students in teaching learning process [19]. The demonstration method fits very well with the idea of computational thinking, since students share ideas and develop activities based on their own proposals, including new elements. Likewise, *Scratch* allows one to visualize in real time the programming of the performed task.

#### 1.2.2. Cooperative Learning

As indicated by [20], "cooperative learning is promoted in the mid-twentieth century as a teaching strategy that favors school integration but it is proposed and supported by constructivist and sociocultural theorists as a promoter of cognitive and socio-affective development" [20]. Cooperative learning consists of the provision of small groups of students who work together in order to improve their learning. In this didactic methodology, there are three types, according to the stability or permanence of the group [21]:


Taking into account that the activities outlined in this paper to reinforce concepts related to functions would be framed in a specific quarter, perhaps it would be appropriate to raise formal groups in class, which begin to work cooperatively with *Scratch*. These groups could be extended to the complete course, becoming cooperative base groups. This makes sense if this technological tool, or others related, are used throughout the rest of the course and it is desired to have a global vision of the development of the activity carried out by the working groups. In this case, it would be appropriate to monitor the work capacity of the groups at all times, in order to make changes when necessary. A suitable number for group size would be three students, and may even be two, if the computer resources of the educational center allow it.

#### 1.2.3. Gamification

According to [22], the term gamification can be defined as "The process of gamethinking and game mechanics to engage users and solve problems". The combination of the demonstration method and cooperative learning together with gamification manages to apply collaboratively dynamics and strategies of the game to the learning process. To accomplish this, a clear message should be defined intentionality, choosing the strategy to follow and finally evaluating and measuring progress. Games are traditionally used in early ages but stigmatized in more advanced ages, sometimes being considered a waste of time. However, in recent years, gamification has become a methodological trend with great presence in classrooms [23,24]. Consequently, a fast growth of the publications in the area of gamification in education has arisen over the past seven years. Moreover, the worldwide interest in the area is indicated by the number of countries in which the contributing authors are based and the number of institutions to which they are affiliated [25].

The approach carried out in the learning of functions through programming with *Scratch* is a game in itself. It allows the student to try different options until reaching the problem solution, without fear of making mistakes in the process. This is very interesting since the fact of not being able to reach the final solution may involve the student's motivation to continue playing and improving; on the contrary, in the education system, usually the mistakes are penalized, which can lead to demotivation [26]

#### 1.2.4. Combination of the Proposed Methodologies

The use of cooperative learning combined with the demonstration method and gamification would provide the following advantages:


The objective of this paper is to study the *Scratch* programming language as a didactic tool to teach functions and analyze the suitability of different methodologies to teach functions. From this perspective, the following research questions are posed:


#### **2. Materials and Methods**

*2.1. Teaching of the Cartesian Coordinate System*

2.1.1. Traditional Teaching Versus Didactic Proposal

The teaching of the Cartesian coordinate system is usually oriented to didactically explain the location in a map or graphic. It is also possible to play games such as the classic "Sea Battle". Considering these possibilities, learning situations such as "El Cartesiano" have been proposed [27].

The didactic proposal which considers *Scratch* presented in this paper is focused on understanding the Cartesian coordinate system as an element integrated on the computer screen in which the student is working on. The idea is to show this proposal to future teachers who are learning mathematics didactics at the university, in order to propose an alternative to teach this topic. The *Scratch* scenario (the working window) is measured in pixels (px). The scenario dimensions are 480 px (width) by 360 px (height). Each pixel is a square which composes a digital image. Therefore, a high resolution image (1920 × 1200 px) is much bigger than the *Scratch* scenario, as shown in Figure 1.

#### 2.1.2. The Cartesian Coordinate System in *Scratch*

*Scratch* allows one to select several scenarios as a template or to use new ones created by the user. There are predefined scenarios in the current version of *Scratch* (3.0), also available in the previous version (2.0), which show the Cartesian coordinate system as follows:


**Figure 1.** *Scratch* scenarios in a 1920 × 1200 px high resolution image.

**Figure 2.** *Scratch* scenarios related to the Cartesian Coordinate System. As a reference a cross (object Button5) is located in coordinates (100, 100).

*Scratch* scenarios present a powerful didactic tool. On the one hand, the scenarios in Figure 2 are useful to work the area concept in flat figures, taking as a reference 100 × 100, 30 × 30 and 20 × 20 squares. On the other hand, to consider the position of an element in the screen, a *Scratch* object must be included. For instance, in the Figure 2 scenario, a cross (object Button5) is located at the coordinates (100, 100).

Once the Cartesian coordinate system is explained considering the *Scratch* scenarios, the didactic proposal of this paper is based on presenting and assessing three different activities based on linear, affine, quadratic and exponential functions considering the combination of the active didactic methodologies previously presented.

#### *2.2. Proposed Activities*

In this paper, three activities using the *Scratch* programming language are proposed: the first one refers to the linear and affine functions, while the second one deals with the quadratic function and the third one is related to the exponential function. The proposed activities were introduced to a group of 30 students of the Mathematics and its Didactics I subject of the Primary Education Degree of the Faculty of Education Sciences (FCEDU) of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC). In the last didactic unit of this subject, dedicated to algebra, the linear, affine, quadratic and exponential functions are studied. The objective is to present these functions in a didactic way, so these activities were proposed as a reinforcement exercise.

#### 2.2.1. Activity 1: Going to the Cinema with the Linear and Affine Functions

This section presents an activity applied to a linear function, which is then adapted to an affine function, based on a situation of daily life taking as a reference on a problem of multiplicative structure. This type of problems is identified with a rule of three in which there is direct proportionality. A suitable way of didactic resolution is the reduction to unity. Thus, the following problem is proposed:

> *"If the cost for 3 friends to go to the cinema is 18 €, how much would it cost for 7 friends to go to the cinema?"*

According to the technique which is usually explained for the direct rule of three, a cross-multiplication may be used as follows:

> 3 friends → 18 € 7 friends → *x €* Therefore 3·*x*= 7·18 → *x* = 42 €

This way of resolution is far away from the practical form of calculation which is carried out in real life, which would happen to wonder how much a ticket costs and then multiplying the cost of a ticket by the number of friends who are going to the cinema, as follows:

*"If the cost for 3 friends to go to the cinema is 18 €, then the ticket costs 18/3 = 6 € Therefore, the cost for 7 friends is 7*·*6 = 42 €"*

This problem applied to functions could then be understood as a linear function in which the slope (*m* in a linear function *y* = *mx*) would constitute the cost of the ticket (6 €), the independent variable *x* would be the number of friends, and the dependent variable *y* would be the total cost to go to the cinema. Based on this idea, a *Scratch* program could be proposed as follows:

	- a. In which quadrants of the coordinate system can the problem solution be found? *Answer*: First quadrant (linear function). The answer changes to the first and third quadrants if an affine function is considered.
	- b. What would be the maximum number of friends we can consider taking into account that the result is within the *Scratch* screen? *Answer*: 30 friends (6×30 = 180: maximum ordinate in *Scratch* screen) for a linear function. Thus, the solution is *x* = 30 and *y* = 180. To show this result, the xy-grid-30px scenario could be used as a reference, as represented in Figure 3 (the cross marks the position for *x* = 15 and *y* = 90, just in the middle, and each square of the grid is 30 × 30). The answer changes depending on the ordinate of the origin if an affine function is considered.

**Figure 3.** Linear function with the solution marked for 15 friends (cost = 90 €).

Once the linear function is studied, a variant can be considered to pass from the linear function *y* = *mx* to the affine function *y* = *mx* + *n*, giving meaning to the ordinate in origin *n*, proposing the following alternatives:


The affine functions corresponding to alternatives (1) and (2) are represented in Figure 4, which appear, respectively, above and below the linear function represented.

**Figure 4.** Affine functions representation versus linear function.

2.2.2. Activity 2: Throwing the Ball into a Basket with Quadratic Functions

Many times, students face the resolution of second degree equations according to Equation (1):

$$y = a\mathbf{x}^2 + b\mathbf{x} + c = 0\tag{1}$$

To proceed, they usually apply the formula expressed in Equation (2), which provides the possible solutions, without understanding its meaning graphically.

$$\alpha = \frac{-b \pm \sqrt{b^2 - 4ac}}{2a} \tag{2}$$

From this expression, it can be understood that when *<sup>b</sup>*<sup>2</sup> − <sup>4</sup>*ac* = 0, there will be a central point on the abscissa axis (*x*-axis) from which there will be an equal displacement to both left and right, which will determine the cut points with the *x* axis (*y* = 0) as long as *b*<sup>2</sup> > 4*ac* (so that there are real solutions). This point is called THE vertex and its component on the *x* axis (*xv*) follows the expression presented in Equation (3).

$$\propto\_{\upsilon} = \frac{-b}{2a} \tag{3}$$

Accordingly, the expression on the *y*-axis (*yv*) will be given by the expression presented in Equation (4):

$$y\_v = a\mathbf{x}\_v^2 + b\mathbf{x}\_v + c = a \cdot \left(\frac{-b}{2a}\right)^2 + b \cdot \frac{-b}{2a} + c = \frac{b^2}{4a} - \frac{b^2}{2a} + c = -\frac{b^2}{4a} + c \tag{4}$$

An example of the discussed characteristics is shown in Figure 5 for the function *<sup>y</sup>* <sup>=</sup> −*x*<sup>2</sup> + 6*<sup>x</sup>* + 16. This activity will attempt to discern the position of the vertex based on its expression by approximating the solution from a basic parabolic motion problem. Although students will not perform this kind of problem in physics until the first year of Baccalaureate, it will serve to acquire the basic knowledge of its operation.

**Figure 5.** Quadratic function with calculation of vertex and cut-off points with *x* axis.

Starting from a simple *Scratch* program and a suitable scenario, the launching of a ball can be simulated by generating a parabola, as shown in Figure 6. The challenge would be to ask students to obtain adequate values for coefficients *a*, *b* and *c* after studying aforementioned aspects.

**Figure 6.** *Scratch* program and parabola corresponding to coefficients *a* = −1, *b* = −150 and *c* = −5450.

#### 2.2.3. Activity 3: Infecting with Exponential Functions

In this activity, students will understand how growth works in an exponential function, which is especially striking when the exponential function growth rate seems to be low, as is the case with this problem

"Suppose a virus with a daily infection rate of 5%, this means that each day there are an additional 5% of people infected by the virus. People will continue to infect at this rate until a vaccine is found. If we assume that the days constitute the independent variable '*x*' of the problem, the number of infected people the dependent variable '*y*' of the problem, and that on day '0' there was only one infected person: estimate with a *Scratch* program on which day at most you could find the vaccine so that the solution of the problem is within the *Scratch* screen. Obtain also the exact solution'.

According to the proposed problem, it can be deduced that it can be expressed as presented in Equation (5).

$$y = 1.05^{\text{x}} \tag{5}$$

Therefore, the number of infected people depending on the number of days for some values changes dramatically when the number of days increases, as presented in Table 1.

**Table 1.** Infected people VS number of days.


• After 15 days, there are only 2 infected people;


The related program in *Scratch*, which is provided to students, is based on a recursive program to multiply the base of the expression (1.05), the required times by the exponent (*x*). The program draws with the extension "*Pen*" the area below the exponential curve, which saturates the *Scratch* screen approximately for an *x* = 100, as shown in Figure 7. This value can be exactly calculated applying logarithms, as presented in (6).

$$y\_{\max} = 1.05^{x\_{\max}}, \text{ where } y\_{\max} = 180, \text{ so } x\_{\max} = \frac{\log(180)}{\log(1.05)} = 106.43,\tag{6}$$

The result of expression (6) represents the maximum day at which the vaccine could be found, so the solution of the problem within the *Scratch* screen is day 106. For this number of days, the value of *y* is equal to 1.05106 = 176.22, which does not exceed the maximum value of the screen (*ymax* = 180). If an upper value is used (for example, 107), the maximum value would be exceeded (1.05<sup>107</sup> = 185.03).

#### *2.3. Data Collection*

The data collection of the proposed activities is based on the evaluation of competences and therefore trying to identify the achievement of competencies in the student, so the objective will be to collect useful information in relation to student progress. This is key to define the assessment instruments and types.

**Figure 7.** Scratch exponential function program. The curve saturates for *x* = 107.

#### 2.3.1. Participants

The participants in this study were 30 future teachers. The participants are students of the Mathematics and its Didactics I subject of the first course of Primary Education Degree of the Faculty of Education Sciences (FCEDU) of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC). From the 30 participants, 19 (63.33%) were women and 11 (36.67%) were men, all aged between 19 and 21 years old (19.2 years was the average).

Most of the participants (90%) did not know the *Scratch* programming language. All participants had no prior knowledge of teaching the functions considering the associated active methodologies.

#### 2.3.2. Assessment Instruments

When defining the instruments for evaluating the activities carried out, the methodologies used in the teaching-learning process are also taken into account, so that they are adapted in a consistent manner. Thus, the considered instruments are the following:

	- − *Group*: Students would include *Scratch* programs of the activities carried out in a work folder, as well as a report indicating how they have developed it, highlighting the most relevant aspects;

**Figure 8.** Question related to activities developed with *Kahoot!* software.

2.3.3. Assessment Types

The considered assessment types [28] are the following:


As a first step, an initial evaluation is proposed to determine the previous knowledge of the students. Likewise, during the development of the activities a continuous evaluation will be carried out based on the portfolio review, to conclude with a final evaluation. To sum up, a synthesis of the collection of evidence for the activities' assessment is presented in Table 2.

#### 2.3.4. Considered Survey

After carrying out the considered activities and the assessment presented in Table 2, the survey shown in Figure 9, based on a 5-point Likert scale (1: strongly disagree; 2: disagree; 3: neither agree nor disagree; 4: agree; 5: strongly agree), was passed to the students.


**Table 2.** Synthesis of evidence collection and weighted evaluation.




**Figure 9.** Proposed survey.

The survey was designed ad hoc by the authors for this research. Three key aspects related to the second research question were taken into account: the activities, the methodologies and the assessment. The questionnaire consisted of 12 questions, and since the three aspects were equally important, the same number of questions were assigned for each aspect—that is, four questions for each of the three aspects.

To validate the reliability of the survey as suitable data collecting instrument, Cronbach's alpha method was considered, obtaining a value of 0.79. This score is assessed as adequate according to authors such as Nunnally [29], who states that a value of 0.5 or 0.6 would be sufficient for early stages of a research. Other authors, such as Huh et al. [30], consider that this reliability value should be equal or higher than 0.6 in exploratory research. Therefore, the survey used as an instrument in this paper counts on a high reliability rate.

#### **3. Results**

The survey results are presented in Table 3. The results show an average higher than 4 in all questions, highlighting the understanding of linear and affine functions (4.57) and quadratic functions (4.4) as well as the averages of activities (4.36) and assessment (4.35).

**Table 3.** Survey results. Partial results for activities, methodologies and assessment together with the total are included.


The presented results show that students found the activities motivating. They understand that the combination of the proposed methodologies is an appropriate alternative to the magisterial lesson. Each theme is further analyzed in the Discussion section.

#### **4. Discussion**

In the following subsections, the results are discussed considering previous works and including the proposals for improvement commented by the students.

#### *4.1. Activities*

Students assessed activities by giving a maximum punctuation to activity 1 (average: 4.57), then activity 2 (average: 4.4) and finally activity 3 (average: 4.1). According to these results and students' comments in the class, it seems that the first activity, based on linear and affine functions, was quite attractive to them since it was clear and simple. However, the understanding of the exponential function and the use of a recursive function to translate it into *Scratch* was more difficult to them and probably this is the reason of the survey result in this case. In fact, recursion and fractal thinking usually require more time and better tools, and scaffolds linking fractals and fractal thinking to the curriculum and the real world, as concluded by Lee and Jian in a recent study related to the assessment of computational thinking in *Scratch* fractal projects [31]. On the other hand, the modelling of the quadratic function in a context related to basketball has been also successful in the past in several scenarios, for instance, using a video of a trajectory as an initial step and concluding if it represents a parabola [32]. In our proposal, the originality of finding the required function coefficients in a *Scratch* environment motivated students to find not only one possible solution, but the optimum.

#### *4.2. Methodologies*

All considered methodologies were well assessed, especially highlighting gamification (average: 4.33). It is remarkable that students consider that the use of the considered methodologies is better than the magisterial lesson (average: 4.17) and that the use of *Scratch* is appropriate to model reality (average: 4.23). While students require the integration of active methodologies, it is important to note that there are still teachers who cling to their old magisterial lessons because they are afraid that if they abandon the teaching style that they know, they will lose control of the class. Consequently, it is key to orient the training of teachers on the positive pedagogical effects the new style would render: co-operative work and problem solving or research, among others, instead of only focusing towards the purely technical aspects [33]. Moreover, as perceived by students, *Scratch* is appropriate to model real-life scenarios. In fact, previous studies have shown that teachers feel that it is easy to connect programming to other teaching and learning activities in school, such as problem solving. However, sometimes there is a lack of directives for the integration, in terms of what type of programming should be implemented [34]. In this sense, it is important to know *Scratch* limitations and when another programming language, such as Python, should be used as an alternative.

#### *4.3. Assessment*

The different proposals included in the assessment were similarly accepted, with slight differences in the average results: 4.43 (portfolio), 4.4 (final objective assessment), 4.3 (initial objective assessment) and 4.27 (teaching observation). In this case, it is clear that the main motivation for the students is the realization of the *Scratch* activities which conform the portfolio. This *Scratch* portfolio approach was originally proposed as a possibility by Mitch Resnick and Karen Brennan. In this case, each member of the *Scratch* online community has a profile page. In this page, any member (scratcher) can display creations as well as other dimensions of participation, such as scratchers they follow. The teacher analyzes the portfolio of projects uploaded by a particular community member (student). This approach is specially focused on the development of computational thinking through *Scratch* programming activities [35]. In this sense, previous research of Permatasari et al. showed that more than 90% of learning outcomes were achieved following a portfolio assessment using a problem-based learning model with *Scratch* in the last cycle of the sequence. In this way, portfolio represented the main assessment tool with respect to pre-action testing and attitude observation [36].

#### *4.4. Proposals for Improvement*

The students indicated the following aspects as proposals for improvement:

• More time for its approach given the complexity of the program for some of them. It is observed that since they had not practiced before with *Scratch*, it was difficult to them to understand the program, which contrasts with the experience at an early age. From here, the importance of integrating programming at an early age is deduced, as with languages or any type of practical learning;


#### *4.5. Limitations and Future Research Lines*

Although we have found interesting results, this study presents some limitations. On the one hand, the study sample is not very large. However, for a first exploratory study, it provides relevant information in the research context (Faculty of Education Sciences of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria). On the other hand, the qualitative study may be enhanced considering additional instruments. Future works will extend the sample, also considering qualitative assessment instruments such as structured interviews.

Future research lines include the combination of the presented aspects with robotics, based on platforms such as *Scratch for Arduino* as well as the usage of other programming languages in different education levels.

#### **5. Conclusions**

The objective of this paper is to study the *Scratch* programming language as a didactic tool to teach functions and analyze the suitability of different methodologies to teach functions.

In this paper, we presented three innovative activities aimed at the block of functions of the subject of mathematics. The starting point was the use of *Scratch* software to didactically introduce the linear, affine, quadratic and exponential functions. The proposed activities were combined with active didactic methodologies in order to make the most of them, proposing at the same time a coherent assessment.

The proposed activities were introduced to a group of 30 students of the Mathematics and its Didactics I subject of the Primary Education Degree of the Faculty of Education Sciences (FCEDU) of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC). The activities, methodologies and assessment were evaluated by these students with results higher than 4 in Likert scale for all cases, showing a preference for the proposed methods over the magisterial lesson. Students especially highlighted simple activities based on linear and affine functions as well as the use of gamification methodology and the assessment based on portfolios. Even though some students found the program complex, asking for more time to understand it, they also found it motivating, asking for additional activities on everything learned.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, E.Q.G.; methodology, E.Q.G. and A.Z.L.; software, E.Q.G.; validation, E.Q.G. and A.Z.L.; formal analysis, E.Q.G. and A.Z.L.; investigation, E.Q.G.; resources, E.Q.G. and A.Z.L.; data curation, E.Q.G. and A.Z.L.; writing—original draft preparation, E.Q.G.; writing—review and editing, E.Q.G. and A.Z.L.; visualization, E.Q.G. and A.Z.L.; supervision, E.Q.G. and A.Z.L.; project administration, E.Q.G. and A.Z.L.; funding acquisition, E.Q.G. and A.Z.L. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research received no external funding.

**Institutional Review Board Statement:** Not applicable.

**Informed Consent Statement:** Not applicable.

**Data Availability Statement:** Data available on request.

**Acknowledgments:** We would like to thank the group "Innovación Educativa en Diseño e Implementación de Sistemas Integrados (GIE-56)" of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and the educational innovation project "ROBOT-EDULPGC. Diseño, implementación y puesta en práctica de una plataforma modular de robótica educativa de bajo coste (PIE2020-56)" for their collaboration in this study.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.

### **References**


## *Article* **Brazilian and Spanish Mathematics Teachers' Predispositions towards Gamification in STEAM Education**

**Paula López 1,\*, Jefferson Rodrigues-Silva 1,2 and Ángel Alsina <sup>1</sup>**


**Abstract:** This article reports a multiple case study in which we analyse Brazilian and Spanish mathematics teachers' opinions about and predispositions toward gamified activities in STEAM education. To obtain data, we administered a survey to 56 in-service mathematics teachers in primary and secondary education from these countries. The survey had been previously validated throughout an expert judgement process. Our results show a high percentage of teachers who think this kind of activity has positive effects on students' development, improving their affective domain toward mathematics and required skills for mathematical competency. Notwithstanding, many teachers report insecurity and lack of training for employing such educational methodologies.

**Keywords:** teacher predispositions; gamification in education; gamifying learning; STEAM education; mathematics; Brazil; Spain

#### **1. Introduction**

Fostering students' motivation, engagement, and behavioural changes is an appealing objective that researchers argue the gamification of education could achieve [1–4]. Additionally, it seems desirable to educate people with interdisciplinary knowledge and develop skills and abilities for autonomously and critically acting, living, and working in a complex and ever-changing twenty-first-century world, which is promised by STEAM Education—an interdisciplinary approach among the areas of Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Humanities, and Mathematics [5]. Therefore, we could conjoin these goals by thinking of gamification as an educational strategy for pursuing and promoting STEAM Education [6], for example, in mathematics [7].

STEAM Education has recently become a trend in educational development [8] that promotes learning throughout and for the interdisciplinary enterprise [5]. We find it across all educational stages: from early childhood education until higher education [4,9]. Originally, the term STEAM derived from the acronym STEM [10]. The National Science Foundation (NSF) in the 1990s formalised the acronym STEM concerning the four areas of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics [11]. Afterward, STEAM Education emerged as a new pedagogy during the Americans for the Arts-National Policy Roundtable discussion in 2007 "to help counterbalance the increased focus on STEM subjects and the decline in arts education in the U.S." [10] (p. 32).

STEAM has cognitive and affective objectives, namely STEAM Literacy [12], and also democratic and utilitarian goals (skill development) [13]. STEAM is based on educational philosophies such as Deweyan pragmatism and the premise that learning should be constructed through (reflection about) experience [14]. The term STEAM aligns well with many methods [5] especially active and collaborative ones, e.g., the maker movement, Project Based Learning (PjBL), Problem Based Learning (PBL) [8], augmented reality [15], and gamification [6].

**Citation:** López, P.; Rodrigues-Silva, J.; Alsina, Á. Brazilian and Spanish Mathematics Teachers' Predispositions towards Gamification in STEAM Education. *Educ. Sci.* **2021**, *11*, 618. https://doi.org/10.3390/ educsci11100618

Academic Editors: José Carlos Piñero Charlo, María Teresa Costado Dios, Enrique Carmona Medeiro, Fernando Lloret and James Albright

Received: 10 August 2021 Accepted: 5 October 2021 Published: 9 October 2021

**Publisher's Note:** MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

**Copyright:** © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).

Gamification is a neologism derived from the digital media field [16]. The first use of this concept, in 2003, is attributed to Nick Pelling, a British game developer. [1]. Although gamification is a relatively young topic, it is an increasing research interest topic [2,3]. A bibliometric survey showed the geographic distribution of research in the gamification of education: from 100 countries, the United States of America has the largest share of publications on the subject (almost 13%), while Spain comes closely behind with almost 9%; the results placed Brazil in the fifth position in the list (4.2%) [4].

Deterding et al. [17] (p. 02) define gamification as "the use of game design elements in a non-game environment". Although there is no consensus of a specific definition and scope for gamification, according to the literature review, the definition from Deterding et al. [17] is the most widespread and accepted [1,18]. Among these game elements, we encounter reward-action contingency (RACs): leader boards, scoring, and badges [19]. Additionally, mission, narrative, character, level, aim, resources and items, and collaboration are game elements applied in learning gamification [18]. However, if we have applied game elements, how does gamification work in a non-game environment? One major difference between gamification and designing conventional games remains because we apply gamification regarding some desired outcomes from a particular context, while also providing some enjoyment. The latter has internal objectives concerning pure entertainment [18].

Mora et al. [18] found in a literature review of 40 publications generic framework designs for gamification (35%) and frameworks for specific contexts, which they categorised as business (45%), learning (15%), and health (5%). Hamari et al. [2] found empirical studies of gamification in various contexts. In this paper, we address studies of gamification in the educational context.

In education, gamification is reported as a powerful tool for teachers at all levels in the educational system [1]. Hamari et al. [2] reviewed the literature in empirical studies of gamification and observed that educational context was the most reported. All articles reviewed reported learning outcomes as mostly positive: increasing motivation, engagement, and enjoyment. Additionally, gamification encourages extracurricular and interdisciplinary learning [1]. Mora et al. [18] acknowledged a consensus that design frameworks in education explicitly reveal the importance of defining clear objectives. Gamification differs conceptually from serious games in this aspect. Serious games immerse learners into the gameplay and attempt to hide educational objectives. In gamification, educational objectives are visible [1]. According to the literature, researchers commonly report unclear objectives as the main reason for failure in gamification designs [18].

The literature suggests gamification as an active method for STEAM education. Cleophas [6], for example, reported a case study of STEAM-gamified activity employed in Brazil. She designed and applied it using many game elements, such as score, a classification table, and progress feedback. She included content knowledge of the history and fundamentals of chemistry: chemical bonds, formulas, stoichiometric balance, reactions, and ammonia synthesis. She pointed to interdisciplinarity within STEAM areas: including poetry and caricature (Arts) and chemical calculations and logic association (Mathematics). The author considered that the activity also involved technology and engineering, although she treated them as resources and not proper knowledge areas. Technology was referred to as the use of technological tools, mobile applications and social media, and engineering simply as applying manipulative material for constructing molecules. Cleophas [6] argued that the STEAM gamified approach permitted graduating challenges, promoting spaces for feedback, motivating and engaging students, and fostering collaboration among them.

Mendes et al. [20] reviewed gamification applied to teaching deaf students and related to learning sign language. They note that this usage was reported in few countries, e.g., Brazil, Egypt, and Romania. According to them, gamification is in its commencement as an inclusive strategy, but it has already been shown as an avenue for creating communication systems between deaf people and deaf people and listeners through sign language.

In mathematics education, as an area that is part of STEAM education, gamification is present from the first educational levels [21,22] and throughout all the stages, especially in secondary education [23]. Computer science, social sciences, engineering, and mathematics are, in this order, the most reported areas in the gamification of education [4]. However, gamification in mathematics is sometimes misconceived, and the term gamification is improperly used in the description's framework and/or the analysis of games. Muñoz et al. [24] points to four key characteristics that should be met in a gamified activity in mathematics: (1) it proposes a problem to be individually or collaboratively solved to achieve rewarded objectives; (2) it creates challenges between users; (3) it accounts for scores, so that students receive gifts or prizes; and (4) it creates levels and rankings so that students can receive feedback, compete, and compare their results. These indicators maintain strong links with an approach to teaching mathematics through mathematical processes of problem-solving, reasoning and proof, communication, connections, and representation, more linked to thinking and doing than to memorising concepts and reproducing procedures [25].

Based on a review of gamified activities in mathematics, we find several digital games where students have to perform tests to achieve a goal using technological devices, e.g., mobile phones [26–28]. Jagušt et al. [1] (p. 451), for example, reported an empirical study about a gamified lesson using tablets in lower primary mathematics classes in competitive, adaptive, and collaborative conditions. Compared to the control group, non-gamified activity, "three other gamified conditions showed positive trends in terms of several solved tasks as time passed, with the adaptive condition being the most prominent, followed by competitive and collaborative conditions". Notwithstanding, the adaptive condition was statistically significant as causing the greatest amount of stress among students and led to the greatest number of incorrect task competition attempts. The authors also re-examined error role in education, arguing that gamification may provide a welcoming ambience for incorrect answers in the initial phases, and this strategy can be effective for learning.

Despite the excitement around gamification, there is some controversy. Mora et al. [18] observed that some frameworks consider using technology as a prerequisite for gamification, while some researchers support that "[g]amification can also be done completely offline by adding motivational narratives as a prequel to an activity or by awarding paper badges or medals for certain educational achievements" [1] (p. 456). In this sense, gamification could be associated with object-based learning (OBL) [29], wherein manipulative materials play a pedagogical role. Most frameworks of gamification address fun as a relevant aspect to be considered during the design process of gamification. Issues such as risk, feasibility, and investment are often disregarded [18]. It is worth remarking that Dubbels [19] argues that gamification is reported as easy or expensive to construct, compared to game design.

Hamari et al. [2] pointed out that some studies showed that the results of gamification may not be long term, but caused by a novelty effect. A decrease in students' motivation and satisfaction over time has been reported, comparing gamified with non-gamified courses [1]. Muñoz et al. [24] warned that repetition of this type of activity ends up causing boredom in students, whom we intend to motivate a priori. Disengaged students are powerfully motivated when facing something new, but as soon as they have to apply the knowledge they still do not have, and if they do not promptly learn with these activities, these students end up disconnecting quickly. Others reported possible negative outcomes that need to be paid attention to, such as increasing competition, task evaluation difficulties, and design features. It seems that gamification alone may not sustain the effects on students' interest, motivation, and satisfaction levels [1].

Studies and experiences with escape rooms have also proliferated [30–32], which again present the same problem: it creates great expectations when used for the first time, but since we cannot repeat it, once its features become known, it loses the initial potential for motivation. This type of activity also has the disadvantage of requiring much work to be prepared, and then it is hard to be adapted to other students or other contents. This

does not happen when using games in mathematics class, as it has been implemented for decades.

The existing literature addresses true gamification in learning mathematics, while some experiences misconceive gamification in mathematics by referring to it when concerning game usage in education. Additionally, the previously commented upon inconsistencies and controversies found around the subject should be considered. Altogether, this also leads to a requirement for investigation into teachers' opinions, since they are indeed agents with a relevant role in teaching. Studies have analysed teachers' beliefs about gamification, and they have found that teachers have positive opinions about it [33–35]. For example, students develop learning, skills, and the affective domain [33,34] in a gamified teacher training course [35]. Notwithstanding, there are practically no studies in Spain and Brazil that have analysed the effect of implementing gamification as a tool to promote mathematics learning and instruction. Concerning gamification, Alabbasi [34] concluded that teachers have a positive perception of incorporating it into online learning. They consider, for example, that gamification improves students' motivation towards course goals, elevates students' satisfaction, and promotes the urge to go beyond the requirements of the course. It increases attention and the curiosity to navigate multiple elements in the learning management system [34].

STEAM Education research also lacks an understanding of teachers' beliefs [36–38]. Kim and Bolger [36] remark that despite Korean teachers considering that STEAM educational programs can have a positive impact on elementary education, many are reluctant to take part in STEAM education. Teachers' negative perception of STEAM education is mainly justified by their belief in insufficient training and experience [36]. Teachers may have different perceptions of interdisciplinary approaches, e.g., secondary teachers who exhibit a more negative view of the potential impact of STEM education on student achievement when compared to primary teachers [38]. Among the concerns, teachers report an increase in their workload, difficulty in coordinating with teachers from other knowledge areas [38], and a lack of support from peers and school administration [37].

Considering the background described and these gaps in the literature, this study aims to analyse the predisposition of mathematics teachers in primary and secondary education to carry out gamification activities in STEAM education.

#### **2. Materials and Methods**

This is a multiple case study [39], employed as descriptive research with a mixed design: a quantitative and a qualitative part, which are interrelated in the way that one complements the other.

#### *2.1. Participants*

Participants of the study are 56 mathematics teachers, 24 being in-service in Brazil and 32 in Spain. They work with students whose average age ranges from 10 to 16 years old. Table 1 summarises sample distribution by gender and education level for both countries.


**Table 1.** Research sample of Spanish and Brazilian teachers was distributed per gender and education level.

<sup>1</sup> Original education level names of primary school and secondary school in Spain, Educación Primaria and Educación Secundaria, and in Brazil, Ensino Fundamental and Ensino Médio, respectively.

Teachers working in primary school and secondary school have an average age around 50 years old and 40 years old, respectively, for both countries, Brazil and Spain. Concerning their degrees, in Spain, the primary school teachers had graduated with the specific formation of Primary Educator Teacher, except for one female teacher who had graduated in Pedagogy. Spanish Secondary School teachers' titles vary more: Mathematics (6), Engineering (5), Economics or Business Management (4), Architecture (3), Pedagogy (1), and Chemistry (1). In Brazil, Primary School teachers had graduated in Mathematics (4), Pedagogy (3), History (1), and Geography (1), and the teachers' trainings in Secondary School were in Mathematics (11), Chemistry (1), Law (1), Biology (1), and Engineering (1).

#### *2.2. Data Collection*

To collect data, we used a survey named "Gamification and Learning" (original name in Spanish "Gamificación y Aprendizaje"), proposed and validated by Cornellà [40]. According to Cornellà [40], the survey was validated though an expert judgment process, which included 17 experts. These people were distributed as experts in games and gamification (3), teachers with experience in applying gamification (7), experts in virtual learning environments (4), and experts in technology (3). The experts evaluated the adequacy between each block title and its questions, questions' relevance, and Likert scale adequacy. Cornellà [40] did corrections until the experts finally approved the survey.

We used Cornellà's [40] survey with few adaptations regarding our research objectives. For instance, we addressed gamification in mathematics in a general scope rather than focusing on virtual learning environments, as was originally the case. In addition, we included some questions related to STEAM Education.

It is noteworthy to say that the whole survey and its attachments were available in the language for each population sample: Catalan language for Spain (Catalonia Autonomy Community) and Portuguese language for Brazil. We divided the survey into three blocks.

Block A) These questions were designed to gather information about sample characteristics—age, courses, education level in which they work, and degree. Open-ended questions about prior experiences with gamification and STEAM Education were also included, so we could explore it qualitatively [41].

Block B) Two questions were included: the first is a Likert-type question scaled from 1 (not important) to 5 (very important), with a list of 18 general aspects regarding teaching the discipline of mathematics (e.g., content knowledge, ability to connect with students, method used in class, and others). In the second Likert question, teachers answered their (dis)agreement, ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree), to 21 statements about gamification in mathematics and interdisciplinary STEAM environment. Additionally, they evaluated a gamified activity framed in STEAM Education based on the activity Snap Hotels of Nguyen [42].

Block C) Four open-ended questions were included that were intended to explore other aspects that would permit identifying and evaluating teachers' predisposition and difficulties they consider they might encounter while employing activities in the interdisciplinary STEAM environment and/or gamified activities: (1) Teachers' beliefs about learning outcome differences between employing gamified and non-gamified activities. (2) Difficulties teachers believe they may encounter while engaging in a gamified activity. (3) Predisposition about using gamification in the next course. (4) How teachers envision the possibility of gamification in an interdisciplinary approach with STEAM areas.

#### *2.3. Data Analysis*

We analysed the Likert-type (close-ended) survey questions with descriptive statistics using frequency percentages for each item of scale. We used the R Studio Statistics program and its Likert library. This program exports data in the format of a horizontal bar graph, which permits observing respondents' positive and negative evaluation tendencies, but also neutral answer frequency, which makes it possible to perform group comparisons and address the occurrence of socially derisible responses (SDR) [43].

Analysis of the qualitative part of the study was based on constant comparisons according to grounded theory [41]. The following levels of analysis were considered. First, one author of this manuscript began by reading teachers' responses to become familiar with the content. Then, based on our research goal, we organised and structured information. At this first level, individual transcripts were arranged based on unit fragmentation or segmentation. While reading answers, teachers' dispositions to using gamification mathematics in education were noticed. For example: "*It motivates me a lot to think about implementing gamification in my class. I think it will arouse students' interest and passion*" (ProfEsp30). Raw data were transformed into useful data by first classifying and coding them.

Second, we established a group of categories. For example, in the first category, views of teachers were collected on how they use gamification in mathematics education. In this sense, the codification and categorisation of data were triangulated by comparing, ordering, and structuring to establish categories that allowed data to be compared.

Additionally, third, categories were renamed by the authors of the research, using the method of constant comparisons [41], which includes comparisons made between similarities, differences, and connections of the data. Units of information were scrutinised to see whether they clearly fell into a specific category. We further reflected on whether categories could be simplified and then grouped. We also considered the names and content of changed units, showing new relationships and possible new interpretations between categories. Thus, all aspects that prevented the definition of teachers' predispositions towards the use of gamification in mathematics education were renamed, eliminated, or simplified.

Again, it is worth noting that qualitative data were obtained in Catalan and Portuguese languages. Afterwards, these data were analysed by researchers who are native speakers of each one of these languages, so participants' original intentions could be better interpreted and captured in the analyses.

#### **3. Results**

The results follow the same order from the data collection instrument. According to the aim of our study, we analysed mathematics teachers' predispositions to carrying out gamification activities within STEAM education in primary and secondary school levels. First, we present results about the teachers' prior experiences in engaging in gamified activities and STEAM Education (Block A). Second, we present the results of closed-ended questions (Likert scale) in the form of two graphs: one about teachers' evaluations of the importance of general aspects related to classes of mathematics, and another graph about gamification in mathematics and an interdisciplinary STEAM environment. Additionally, they evaluated a gamified activity framed in STEAM Education based on the activity Snap Hotels of Nguyen [42] (Block B). Third and last, we wrote the results from analyses of four open-ended questions about gamification and STEAM Education (Block C). We present these results in the form of four tables (one referring to each question) structured with the names of corresponding categories in the first column; examples of teachers' response excerpts to qualify them in the second column; and columns with the quantification of the frequency that those categories appear in responses from Spain and Brazil.

#### *3.1. Teachers' Prior Experiences with Gamified Activities and STEAM Education (Block A)*

In this section, we present results about teachers' prior experiences with gamification in the current academic year. We present Table 2, which quantifies the proportion of teachers from Spain and Brazil who indicate having (or not having) conducted gamified activities in classes of mathematics in the current academic year (2020–2021 academic year or 2021 academic year in the Spanish or Brazilian calendar, respectively). In Spain, almost half of the total of teachers (46.9%) indicated they applied gamification in this academic year, with a higher frequency in the primary school (58.3%) compared to secondary school level (40%). In Brazil, on the other hand, the proportion of the country's total teachers who used gamification as a method in their classes in this academic year is a little more than a third (37.5%), with a much lower frequency in primary School (22.3%), which was less than half compared to the secondary school level (46.7%).


**Table 2.** Teachers who have previously carried out gamified activities in mathematics.

A subsequent open-ended question asked for further explanation about the nature of the gamified activity from those teachers who positively answered to having applied one. In Spain, teachers reported that they applied gamification activities related to different resources and contexts: for example, a games table (2), online games (3), contests (2), and escape rooms (3). In Brazil, teachers mainly show that they employed table games (2) or online games (2). It should also be noted that around 16% of Spanish (5) and Brazilian (4) teachers considered gamification as manipulated didactic material, e.g. tangrams or multilink.

The proportion of teachers who indicated that they have worked with gamified activities in an interdisciplinary STEAM Education is much lower, as shown in Table 3: only 10 Spanish (31.2%) and 3 Brazilian (12.5%) teachers. Again, a subsequent open-ended question asked teachers to explain the nature of the gamified activities they applied within STEAM Education. In Spain, five teachers pointed to the STEAM areas they combined, while the other half did not specify. In Brazil, one teacher showed integrating mathematics and chemistry, while the others did not give more information. In addition, many have described STEAM without characteristics of gamification: for example, in the statement "*we photographed different objects in the school, then we analysed them and define each format and volume encountered*" (ProfSpain28).



*3.2. Teachers' Opinions about General Aspects of Math Class regarding Gamification and STEAM Education and Evaluating an Example of a STEAM Gamified Activity (Block B)*

We present results from this subtopic in the form of graphs plotted in the R Studio Statistics program for Brazil and Spain combined. Following this, we address additional considerations about differences between the countries.

Figure 1 refers to a graph with Brazilian and Spanish teachers' evaluations of the importance of general aspects related to classes of mathematics. Before observing the graph content, it is worth explaining that each line in the graph is vertically organised. Additionally, each line contains a bar which may be dislocated from the central position according to how participants evaluated that corresponding element (Likert Scale 1 to 5): a high frequency of "Slightly important" and "Not Important" (1 and 2) make this line appear on the bottom of the graph, dislocating its bar to the left, and a high frequency of positive answers "Important" and "Very important" (4 and 5) makes this line appear on top of the graph and tends to dislocate its bar to the right, and this frequency percentage is shown on this side. The percentages of positive (4 and 5), neutral (3), and negative (1 and 2) answers are shown on the vertical axes in the left, middle, and right positions of the graph.

**Figure 1.** Brazilian and Spanish teachers' evaluation in the importance of general aspects related to classes of mathematics.

Finally, we address the content of the graph from Figure 1. First, we highlight aspects that teachers predominantly considered "Important" or "Very important": Ability to connect with students (96%), Methodology used in class (96%), Students reflect and practice what they have learnt (94%), Content knowledge mastering (94%), Students' engagement (92%), On-going evaluation (87%), Course purpose is clarified from the first class (85%), Mathematics content should be integrated with other knowledge areas (81%), There should be many practical activities (79%), Being able to practice the content knowledge learnt (77%), Considering the opinion of students who took the subject previously (73%), The time the course is taught (60%), and Partial assessment of students' work (58%).

The neutral answer "Moderately important" had a higher frequency percentage in the aspect Most works should be done in groups (42%), while it still presented a tendency towards a positive evaluation of importance (48%) compared to the negative pole (19%). In addition, the neutral answer had a slightly superior frequency in the aspect "Should not have written tests" (38%), but with a tendency towards a negative evaluation of importance (37%).

Teachers predominantly considered the following aspects "Not important" to "Slightly important": Requires little effort to succeed on the course (48%), Most activities should be done individually (46%), and There is an exam at the end of the course (38%).

Now, we draw attention to all items with a high frequency of the neutral answer "Moderately important". It had a frequency higher than 30% in the aspects Most works should be done in groups (42%), Most activities should be done individually (42%), Require little effort to succeed on the course (40%), Should not have written tests (38%), and There is an exam at the end of the course (31%).

In Figure 2, we present a graph with 21 statements about gamification in mathematics and the interdisciplinary STEAM environment. Additionally, a gamified activity framed in STEAM Education based on the activity Snap Hotels of [42] is evaluated. The graph construction and its structure are similar to Figure 1, with the difference that Likert scale

#### refers to (dis)agreement to statements from each line, ranging from "Strongly disagree" (1) to "Strongly agree" (5).

**Figure 2.** Teachers' opinions about gamification in mathematics and STEAM Education. Additionally, evaluation of a gamified activity framed in STEAM Education based on the activity Snap Hotels of Nguyen [42].

Teachers predominantly answered "Agree" or "Strongly agree" (4 and 5) to the statements: I like to see application of a new methodology (94%), I like to incentivize students to overcome challenges (92%); Gamification increases learning motivation (90%); I would like to implement this kind of activity in math subjects (88%); I positively value that a group has to collaborate with other groups to achieve a common goal (87%); The narrative used in the gamified activity helps signifying contents (87%); I would like to work on a gamified activity in collaboration with teachers from other subjects (81%); I like that knowledge and skills from other areas, developed in parallel with mathematics, are graded (79%); I would recommend gamification to be used in other disciplines (79%); I understand the basic concepts of gamification (75%); The narrative captures students' attention towards the subject (73%); Next year I will apply gamification in math (73%); and I would like gamification to be applied to all disciplines (69%). However, the following two statements still conserve a frequency tendency on the agreement pole: I appreciate the activity involves competitions between teams (58%) and I like that points earned for overcoming challenges in gamified activities are considered in the final grade (50%); it is worth noting the high frequency of the neutral answers, both of which were 35%.

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From the bottom of the graph, we observe the statements to which teachers more frequently answered "Disagree" and "Strongly Disagree" (1 and 2). These statements include I do not like to organise students into groups (75%); Gamification deviates from the major objectives of the discipline (71%); I prefer a final exam (65%); I prefer traditional methodologies (60%); I like to promote individual games (not being part of a team) (42%); and I teach the same without gamification (40%).

Highlighting a high frequency of neutral answers, as reported above, the statements from the agreement pole I appreciate the activity involves competitions between teams and I like that points earned for overcoming challenges in gamified activities are considered in the final grade both had a 35% frequency of neutral answers. Some statements from the disagreement pole also had a high frequency of neutral answers: I like to promote individual games (not being part of a team) (38%); I prefer traditional methodologies (29%); and I teach the same without gamification (29%). No statement presented a frequency of neutral answers higher than the options of agreement or disagreement.

#### *3.3. Teachers' Opinions about the Contrast between Gamified and Non-Gamified Activities, Issues in Gamification, and Gamification in STEAM Education (Block C)*

Finally, yet importantly, we describe the results of the analyses of answers of four open-ended questions from Block C. We present these results in the form of four tables (one per question): the first column includes categories; the second column examples of teachers' response excerpts; and finally, columns with the frequency of responses from Spain and Brazil. These questions, presented below, intended to explore and identify what mathematics teachers' think about the differences between gamified and non-gamified activities, the difficulties of gamification in mathematics, their predisposition toward employing gamification, and how they envision the possibility of gamification in an interdisciplinary approach with STEAM areas.

1. Which differences do you think may exist between learning outcomes and learning processes when we compare a gamified and a non-gamified activity?

The analysis of answers to this question resulted in three principal categories of teachers' beliefs about the differences between gamified and non-gamified activities, as seen in Table 4. In the category Positive difference, around 81.1% of Spanish and 76.9% of Brazilian teachers considered differences by pointing to the advantages of gamification. On the other hand, and with a much lower frequency, in the category Negative difference, around 8.11% of Spanish and 3.85% of Brazilian teachers also considered the existence of differences, but in this case, pointing to the disadvantages of gamification. Additionally, third, in the category Not different, a few teachers considered no differences between gamified and non-gamified activities, 2.7% in Spain and no teacher from Brazil. The percentage of non-respondents in Brazil is more than double that of Spain: 19.2% and 8.11%, respectively.


**Table 4.** Teachers' beliefs about learning outcome differences between employing gamified and non-gamified activities.

Within the category Positive differences, we could induce subcategories regarding differences related to Affective domain, Cognitive domain, Skills acquisition, and Not Specified. The frequencies of these subcategories are similar between Spain and Brazil, aspects of Affective domain and Skills acquisition being present in approximately 30% of responses, and around 10% from the subcategory Cognitive domain.

2. Which difficulties do you believe one may face while engaging in a gamified activity in mathematics?

The results of the analysis of responses to this question resulted in the creation of four categories of issues, as displayed in Table 5, that teachers indicate are related to employing gamified activities in mathematics: Planning difficulties, Class management difficulties, Deficient teacher training, and Educational community reticence.


**Table 5.** Difficulties teachers believe they may encounter while engaging in a gamified activity.

As a result, we detected some discrepancies between Brazil and Spain. Although the similarity in the frequency of respondents who pointed to issues within planning difficulties was approximately 34%, when we scrutinise the responses, we noticed differences. With Brazil, half of these responses suggested a lack of resources/investment as an issue when employing gamification in mathematics, e.g., in the excerpt: "*Since I work in a public school, we deal with limited resources. Frequently I spend my money to apply games or other methodologies*" (ProfBra20). Spanish teachers centred their attention on difficulties with the design and evaluation of gamified activities.

In the second category, Class management difficulties, the content of answers is similar for the countries, but it is more prominent with Spain, where the frequency is more than double that of Brazil: 25.7% and 11.5%, respectively.

We highlight another difference between the studied countries in the category Educational community reticence. A significant proportion of Brazilian teachers, 15.4%, show they are likely to face some reticence among peers or the scholar board when employing non-traditional educational methodologies such as gamification. Meanwhile, no Spanish respondent demonstrated this kind of difficulty.

Similarly, with around 20% of response frequency, Brazilian and Spanish teachers show Deficient teacher training as a difficulty in pursuing gamification in their classes. Approximately 20% of Brazilian and Spanish teachers did not answer this question.

3. How do you evaluate the possibility of using gamification as a teaching method in classes of mathematics? What are your feelings about it?

We could classify the answers from these questions into the categories Favourable predisposition and Unfavourable predisposition regarding teachers' intentions to attain

gamification in their disciplines. Inside the category Favourable predisposition, we could distinguish three subcategories, as shown in Table 6, that qualify this predisposition: without indicating reticence, with reticence about deficient teacher training, and with reticence about lack of resources.


**Table 6.** Teachers' predisposition about using gamification in the next course.

Most teachers, approximately 70% for both countries, who replied to this question show a favourable predisposition to employing gamification in their classes. Some of them, on the other hand, question this predisposition. For instance, 34.4% of Spanish teachers suggest that teacher training would be necessary, while in Brazil, only 8.33% pointed in this direction. Again, lack of resources/investment appears to be an issue that differentiates the countries, since only Brazilian teachers, 4.17%, showed a favourable predisposition but reticence considering this reason. Only Brazilians answered with an unfavourable predisposition, with an 8.33% frequency of responses in this country, e.g., justified by the pandemic scenario of COVID-19: "*I see little possibility, given the current pandemic scenario*" (ProfBra03).

4. How do you evaluate, in a gamified activity, the possibility of providing an interdisciplinary environment with some (or all) STEAM areas?

We categorised the results of this question into Possible and Not possible, referring to providing STEAM interdisciplinary environments through gamification. Most teachers in Brazil, 81.8%, envision this possibility, while in Spain, the percentage is 50%, as shown in Table 7.

**Table 7.** Teachers' beliefs about providing STEAM interdisciplinary environments throughout gamification as a teaching method.


Those who replied no possibility presented justifications for being sceptical about this association of gamification and STEAM Education, such as deficient teacher training— "*Currently, I see it impossible. It would be necessary to train all teachers before working collaboratively and in a multidisciplinary approach*" (ProfEsp05) —being difficult to assess—"*It is complex to know what to be evaluated and where it focuses on each discipline*" (ProfEsp07) — difficulty in coordinating different disciplines, especially in the secondary school level—"*It requires much coordination and sometimes it is hard to gather*" (ProfEsp22) —or lack of adequate time—"*Feasible, but I imagine that organising it requires time that we don't have*" (ProfEsp15). In Spain, we also observed teachers from primary school, who regularly already have the same professional teaching subjects from different knowledge areas, evaluate this possibility more positively. Half of the teachers from secondary school did not see it as possible because, among the difficulties mentioned before, they found it hard to coordinate along with teachers in other STEAM areas.

#### **4. Discussion**

In this article, we analysed teachers' opinions and predispositions about gamified activities and the STEAM education approach. According to the literature review, mathematics is one of the STEAM areas that has been least considered so far in gamification (4). Studies of gamification in mathematics have mainly focused on the effect of this method on students' learning outcomes [21–24,28], reporting data, to some extent divergent, related to students' engagement, motivation, or satisfaction [1,2,24].

However, what is the role of mathematics teachers' predispositions and opinions towards gamification? What effects can those teachers' predispositions and opinions have on students' levels of engagement, motivation, and satisfaction? As previously shown, few studies in the literature address teachers' opinions and predispositions about the use of gamification in mathematics classes [33–35], and even fewer in the Spanish and Brazilian panorama.

Data from our study help to fill this literature gap. The first revealing result is that only half of the Spanish teachers and two-thirds of the Brazilian teachers who took part in our study have used gamification in mathematics. Important differences between the two countries emerge when we observe gamification. With Spain, teachers employed a wider variety of resources; comparing students' ages, while in Spain, they apply gamification more in the primary school compared to secondary school level, in the Brazilian context, it happens the other way around.

The results confirm increasing academic attention towards both gamification and competency-based education [33]. Currently, it appears slightly more palpable in Spain than in Brazil. The number of Spanish and Brazilian teachers who have worked with gamification within the STEAM Education approach is much lower, also observing some confusion around the concepts of both gamification [24,25] and STEAM.

Regarding teachers' opinions about using gamification, mathematics teachers at primary and secondary schools in both countries have highlighted that they consider mastery of content as essential in gamified activities, as well as other elements such as reflective and critical thinking skills [33] or engagement [34]. One aspect mathematics teachers least valued was that activities should be done individually in gamification. These data reinforce the findings of Martí-Parreño et al. [33] and Allabasi [34], which suggest that teachers believe gamification encourages team working and oral communication skills, along with social interaction.

Our findings address how mathematics teachers perceive differences and difficulties while using gamified activities within the STEAM Education approach, compared to more traditional ones. The results show, at first sight, a high percentage of teachers (around 80%) who think this kind of activity has positive effects on students' development, improving their affective domain toward mathematics and required skills for mathematical competency. Based on teacher opinions, we can complement the results from previous studies about students' affective domain, which suggests gamification alone may not sustain students' interest and motivation in satisfaction levels [1]. In this sense, we can add that gamification could be carried out in STEAM Education. In order for those features of the affective domain to be more highly attained, this approach to gamified activities needs to be authentic to provide an interdisciplinary environment.

Since teachers believe gamification in a STEAM approach promotes skills development for mathematical competency, we found the congruency that both teachers and policy makers should be encouraged to increase the use of gamification-based programs to develop students' competencies [33]. Concerning the main difficulties, we observed similarities and differences between the two studied populations: teachers from both countries misunderstand the concepts of gamification and STEAM, and they indicate insecurity and a lack of training in planning gamified activities, which points to the necessity for specific teacher training programs [35,36].

In the Brazilian case, half of the teachers refer to the lack of resources as the reason for not carrying out gamification in their classes, but we recall from the literature that gamification can be done with low investment in resources [19]. Since these teachers reported almost no prior experiences with gamification, and those few who reported included examples of activities that are not considered gamification, such as the use of manipulative objects, this leads to the interpretation that this complaint about lack of resources might be a clue about a misunderstanding of the concept of gamification.

Still focusing on the Brazilian context, teachers showed concerns about reluctance/ resistance from teaching staff or school management when they want to carry out activities with methodologies such as gamification. Therefore, this seems to show that experts should design teacher training within models that consider the transformation of teachers' beliefs, such as with the realistic-reflective training model [44], to address this resistance.

Finally, in our study, we have also investigated teachers' predispositions to carrying out gamification activities in interdisciplinary environments with STEAM disciplines. The results from a closed-ended question show that around 80% of Brazilian and Spanish teachers agreed with the statements "*I would like to work on a gamified activity in collaboration with teachers from other subjects*" and "*I like that knowledge and skills from other areas, developed in parallel with mathematics, are graded*". Notwithstanding, further exploration in an openended question showed that this same favourable disposition of 80% only remained for Brazil. In Spain, there are differences between primary teachers, who are generalists and teach all STEAM subjects, and secondary teachers, who are specialists and only teach mathematics. In primary school, teachers see it as possible, but in secondary, more than half of the teachers do not see it as possible because they find it difficult to coordinate with teachers from other STEAM areas. This result confirms the findings of Part et al. [38].

The literature about Likert scales warns that people are likely to choose neutral options for reasons other than being neutral about the topic—for example, when respondents have no interest, or when they want to provide a socially desirable response (SDR): to respond according to what they imagine others expect them to answer or to avoid options that they think peers or any reference group would frown upon [43]. Neutrality in the agreement was around 40% with questions that address students' distribution: "Most works should be done in groups" or "Most activities should be done individually". Neutrality was around one-third of the responses when we scrutinised the evaluation and the statements "Should not have written tests", "There is an exam at the end of the course", and "Points from the gamified activity to be considered in the final grade". All this points to the possibility that teachers may give an SDR of a favourable disposition towards new methodologies such as gamification when they are not sure if they agree with it. Another statement directs us to this conclusion: almost one-third of teachers responded neutrally to "I prefer traditional methodologies".

We highlight that in open-ended responses, only 43.8% of Spanish and 54.2% of Brazilian teachers stated a favourable predisposition towards gamification without reticence. Reticence, whatever its form, might underpin indisposition. Another consideration could be due to the fact that 21.9% of Spanish and 25% of Brazilian teachers did not answer, while the question straightforwardly asked them to evaluate the possibility of using gamification as a teaching method in classes of mathematics. Not answering it may also point to some indisposition.

Our results show that it seems necessary to add a fifth characteristic that should be fulfilled, so that mathematics education could be promoted through the gamification method, to those already indicated by Muñoz et al. [24]: interdisciplinarity. Since teachers present a conceptual misunderstanding of gamification and STEAM Education, they report insecurity and lack of training for engaging in such educational methodologies [33–37]. They also may have an underpinning reluctance to designing and carrying out gamified activities within interdisciplinary approaches [36]. Along with this observation of ambiguous speech in which they are theoretically favourably considering new methodologies, they also show traits of indisposition when they think about actually applying them. In conclusion, there is an urgency for designing teacher-training programs framed within models that intend to transform professional competency by reflecting on teachers' prior experiences and beliefs about gamification and STEAM Education. Therefore, we recommend researchers to explore teacher-training programs in gamification and STEAM Education within a realistic-reflective framework, considering the possibility of distance learning modalities, especially for big countries such as Brazil [45]. The results qualitatively show interesting insights into teacher perceptions on gamification and STEAM Education in the countries of Brazil and Spain. Notwithstanding, the research has a limitation: the sample is small, and therefore the comparative results between the two populations cannot be generalised. Further studies with larger samples are necessary.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, J.R.-S. and Á.A.; methodology, P.L. and Á.A.; formal analysis, P.L. and J.R.-S.; writing—original draft preparation, J.R.-S., P.L. and Á.A.; writing—review and editing, P.L., J.R.-S. and Á.A. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research received no external funding.

**Informed Consent Statement:** Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.

#### **References**


## *Article* **Implementation of a Playful Microproject Based on Traditional Games for Working on Mathematical and Scientific Content**

**Alicia Fernández-Oliveras 1,\*, María José Espigares-Gámez <sup>2</sup> and María Luisa Oliveras <sup>3</sup>**


**Abstract:** According to previous research, we consider it necessary to extend the use of games, as mediating elements, in the learning of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) contents rejected by many students. For this, we have carried out an educational research project on games, with an ethnomathematical approach, since games are an important cultural sign with mathematical and scientific potentialities. We have prepared an anthropological study and an analytical one, generating a catalogue of games from different cultures. Thus, we have verified that, starting with culture, we can get to the game, but we posed the query as to whether, starting from certain games, we could achieve enculturation, by activating mathematical and scientific content in the players. To answer this query, we have created a curricular design called "playful microproject" with three traditional games from different cultures and geographical contexts. The microproject was implemented with 32 participants, from 8 to 12 years old. To analyse the results of the microproject, a case study was carried out using qualitative methodology. As part of the playful microproject, the necessary materials for each game were made by hand, and the games were then played. Both the realization of the games and the act of playing showed evidence of mathematical and scientific content, although more in the act of playing. The results revealed that: (1) the three games mobilized 21 categories of analysis, made up of scientific-mathematical content; (2) the three games proved to be equivalent in strong didactic potential; (3) that the microproject provides a valuable intercultural educational approach. The contents evidenced constitute a fundamental part of the Primary Education curriculum: classify, organize, measure, and quantify items, as well as formulate hypotheses, draw conclusions, place oneself in space, and design strategies, among others. It is concluded that these games can promote scientific-mathematical enculturation in a contextualized way.

**Keywords:** game-based learning; traditional games; ethnomathematics; steam; intercultural education; primary education

#### **1. Introduction**

## *1.1. Background*

Huizinga considered humans to be Homo Ludens or "man who plays" [1]. For this author, play is a cultural phenomenon, a social impulse that extends to all civilizations, as an essential element of each culture that subjects create and use throughout the whole of their lives [2,3]. We assume his vision and value the importance of play as a cultural sign that characterizes each social group and belongs to all humanity, as it originates with the development of society itself and leads the person towards integration into a social group [4].

Regarding the repercussions of play in each subject, its educational influence is undeniable. Play, however, is the ideal scenario for acquiring a great deal of learning. For

**Citation:** Fernández-Oliveras, A.; Espigares-Gámez, M.J.; Oliveras, M.L. Implementation of a Playful Microproject Based on Traditional Games for Working on Mathematical and Scientific Content. *Educ. Sci.* **2021**, *11*, 624. https://doi.org/10.3390/ educsci11100624

Academic Editors: José Carlos Piñero Charlo, María Teresa Costado Dios, Enrique Carmona Medeiro and Fernando Lloret

Received: 16 July 2021 Accepted: 7 October 2021 Published: 11 October 2021

**Publisher's Note:** MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

**Copyright:** © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).

example, some games help in the structuring of language [5], and others favours development of thinking [6]. According to Garaigordobil [7], there are a number of studies that demonstrate how play is a key part in the development of learning in children and adults. In accordance with this idea, there is currently a complete line of international research on playful learning, which includes game-based learning, on which our study focuses, centred on the educational use of traditional games.

We consider play as a key element in the development of the person, taking, as reference, the ideas of Piaget [8], where he interprets play as the means by which the child comes into contact with and develops in the environment, thereby learning to understand reality. This is somewhat related to the proposal of Vigotsky, who affirmed that the game is a social activity [9]. In consideration of these ideas, it becomes necessary to highlight that, despite their importance in current and future society, the skills associated with scientific thinking are often not developed in the classroom and, therefore, need to be promoted through educational and cultural tools, such as games [10]. To the point of taking it as a reference for an educational research project that has been taking shape for a number of years, and which has, as its precedents, various studies on play, its classifications and potential for working on mathematical and scientific content [11–13]. This project comprises four components: anthropological study, analytical study, educational study, and field research (Figure 1). A summary of the first two stages (anthropological and analytical study) can be consulted in a previous publication [14], and the final two stages are presented here.

**Figure 1.** Project components and their relationship to the case study.

The four studies are consecutive and linked, metaphorically configuring a continuous curve. The results of the first generated the research questions of the second, and from this arises the third, focusing the attention on three paradigmatic games united in an MPL that is implemented, constituting "a case"; the fourth study takes, as an object of investigation, the case generated in the third. First, in the anthropological study, we investigated the culture, confirming that the game is one of its idiosyncratic values. We did this in the case of Jamaican culture, compiling its most popular games and discovering scientificmathematical and social aspects of a dozen games rooted in Jamaica. Then, through a second analytical study, we studied a sample of 40 multicultural games, developing a catalogue with detailed characteristics of these games. In the final stage, we selected, from this catalogue, 3 popular games that share a common origin: the game of checkers. With these games, we conducted a third educational and a fourth research studies. We found that these games arise from broadly different socio-geographical contexts and ancestral cultures, but they are currently connected by emigration and tourism. Next, we developed a didactic proposal in the form of an Interdisciplinary Playful Microproject with the three selected games, and finally, we carried out a "Case Study" on the MPL, showing scientificmathematical content and forms of learning that can be promoted through games. The first two studies lead from culture to games, as a circumference arc, and the two studies that

we present here fit into the base of that arc and build the arc backwards: from games to culture. This leads to enculturation in mathematics and science, implicit in games, and to current interculturality based on ancestral heritage.

In the phase corresponding to the anthropological study, the first element is culture associated with play. Bishop [15] indicated that there are six types of activities carried out by all social groups. Playing is one of them. Focusing on this idea, the anthropological study of our project is pertinent, due to the nature of play, and fundamental, because our work is grounded on the research programme denominated Ethnomathematics [16–19], which investigates the relationships between mathematics and different cultures, making the existence of mathematics visible in all of them. From this focus, mathematics can be defined as a three-dimensional creation constructed by: formal science, a mode of individual thought, and social interaction [20,21]. Ethnomathematics includes these three components and is defined by several authors as follows: "Mathematics practiced between cultural groups identifiable as national tribal societies, guilds, children of a certain age, and professional classes" [22]; "A cultural product that has been developed as a result of several activities" [23]; Mathematics implicit in each practice [24], which emerge in all cultures; "modes and techniques (tics) of comprehension, grasp, and explanation of the natural and cultural setting (mathema) in different cultural systems (ethno) [25]. The literature on Ethnomathematics is currently extensive, with notable references for the present work [26–33].

Rosa & Orey [34] relate mathematics to other areas of cognition, such as language or meanings—something tremendously related to culture and its dissemination. At this point, one of the ethnomathematical principles of Gerdes [24] is noteworthy, where the importance of emphasizing the implication of sociocultural factors (game) in education, learning, and development of mathematics is addressed. That is the aim we focus our mathematical and scientific interest on, with games that offer cultural elements applicable to mathematics teaching.

Ideas that were already raised by Alsina and Planas [35], where they make a comparative analysis of the procedures involved in the game and in mathematics, some of them being: knowledge of the rules, acquiring familiarity by relating some pieces to others, making comparisons and interactions of elements, explore the procedures used by other players or discover interesting problems and solve them. Finally, mention of the reflection by Miguel de Guzmán [36] relates to the game and the teaching of mathematics through the following thought: "Mathematics has been/is art and this artistic component related to play is consubstantial to mathematical activity". That is to say, in all mathematics, there is a game, and in every game, there is mathematics.

Once the concepts of play and ethnomathematics have been identified, it is necessary to address what the analytical study consists in the classification and analysis of the games selected, focusing mainly on their mathematical and scientific aspects [37,38]. The purpose of this study is to obtain information on the potential of games for developing STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) learning, where the arts are present in diverse forms, for example creativity, but where learning is also supported and improved in cognitive, physical, language, social, and emotional domains [39]. The term was coined by Yakman & Lee [40] as a framework for education via disciplines focused in an integrated manner. In other words, it was a new paradigm that proposes the sciences (including mathematics) and technology interpreted via engineering and the arts [41]. The complete potential of STEAM goes beyond aesthetics and takes in arts related to language, culture, history, and humanities [42]. The influence of STEAM education can be appreciated in our proposal for playful microprojects based on traditional games [43,44]. It provides a context for the learning of values that is appropriate for a project of this type, which is something that Park & Ko [45] commented on when they indicated that STEAM education should take into account integrative thinking systems, creativity, and values. Using the areas of Mathematics and Science as a starting point, we carry out the educational study, which involves the creation of the design and implementation of a playful microproject

centred around three traditional games, through activities inserted into an educational model based on values of an intercultural type [46].

The field study is comprised of a case study involving the analysis of the implementation of the microproject, showing that it allows for work on scientific and mathematical content.

#### *1.2. Game-Based Learning and STEAM Education*

Recent years have seen a growing presence of creativity in education [47]. Skills relating to creativity, intellectual curiosity, critical thinking, media literacy, intercultural cooperation, and interaction are defined by experts as 21st century skills [48,49]. Teaching creatively means adopting imaginative approaches to make learning more interesting, exciting, and effective [50]. The incorporation of game-based learning strategies is a good option for putting this type of creative teaching into practice [51].

One of the objectives of the use of games at school can be the comprehension of concepts, improvement of techniques (knowledge games), or the acquisition of problemsolving methods—strategy games [52,53]. A number of different studies draw attention to the positive impact this type of learning has on reasoning capacity [54] and maths and science performance [55] Games have a positive impact on learning mathematics and attitudes toward this subject [56]. Analogous to our research, other works have proposed to use games "as a potentially useful tool to introduce and teach specific material to specific populations" [57], while another study has undertaken activities similar to our microproject [58], proposing "praxis games" founded on the concept of situated praxis.

Situated praxis encourages the design and development of games that guide players to discover knowledge inside a range of communities, domains, and experiences.

Others [11] highlight the development of skills associated with playful thinking, such as proposal of objectives, analysis of problematic situations, divergence, or generation of ideas, and convergence in practical solutions. The use of games is, therefore, a powerful tool for working on innovative thinking and developing creativity [59]. Games encourage the acquisition of basic abilities, such as those associated with learning self-regulation (learning to learn) and autonomy (personal initiative), as they provide experiences according to the demands of the player and set achievable goals that give the confidence to keep learning [60]. This, and another study [61], relates to our microproject, given that it studies the effects of the use of self-constructed materials.

Game-based learning promotes the development of social skills [62], motivation to learn [63], improvement in attention, concentration, complex thinking, and strategic planning [64].

Games even help to internalize multidisciplinary knowledge [65], foster logical and critical thinking, and develop cognitive skills associated with problem solving [66] and decision making [67].

All of the above infers the value of using games in STEAM education. However, play is not simply a methodology for intellectual learning; it is also a tool for building contexts in which students find themselves immersed, thus their integral nature and suitability for putting STEAM education proposals into practice. In this regard, López-Fernández [68] frames play in two types of spheres: socio-civic and aesthetic. The social-civic sphere includes cooperative games, given that the interests of each individual are linked to those of his or her colleagues and have a bearing on situations often ignored from an educational perspective (conflict resolution, consensus). Regarding the aesthetic sphere, taking advantage of the creativity that originates in play, it concerns developing creative taste and capacity, and there is emphasis on games relating to construction, roles, and drama. These games mobilize creativity because they suppose the completion of diverse tasks and the solving of specific problems: building a house, making a suit, shopping in a fictitious market, etc. Thus, a close relationship is formed between scientific and mathematical domains and disciplines, such as design and entrepreneurship, which is an ideal interaction for promoting STEAM education.

#### *1.3. Learning Based on Traditional Games as an Intercultural Education Channel*

Throughout history, play has been a constant presence in all cultures and societies, even the most primitive. We are born, evolve, and live with play [69] (p. 32). From the ethnomathematical standpoint, games have been studied, placing great importance on their cultural representability and their educational applications, as in the case of Aroca studying children's games [70,71] and Palhares examining various educational levels [72–75].

When speaking about traditional games, we are referring to those passed down from generation to generation, being part of the cultural background created by society. These games "constitute authentic cultural heritage. They are an expression of a way of living, acting, entering into contact with the medium and of being able to communicate with others" [76] (p. 30). That is, traditional games, and those that derive from them, fulfil a function of enculturation, conserve and transmit deep popular culture values, favour and facilitate social relationships, and help to conserve the heritage of play. They hold great value in themselves, as they comprise past, present, and future cultural tradition that education should foster [77]. Further, knowledge of other cultures' manifestations of play holds special relevance now because it facilitates a more open attitude from students towards contributions of colleagues from other places of origin [78]. The putting into practice of learning strategies based on traditional games directly contributes to appreciation, understanding, and value on the part of students of different cultural manifestations, a key idea for intercultural education, so closely linked to ethnomathematics [46]. The use of traditional games is ideal for promoting social and intercultural values, as "traditional games reproduce the changing social values in each era given that they are the reflection of the society in which they are immersed" [79] (p. 54). Traditional games emphasize the social component of play, strengthening social skills and cultural values [46].

#### *1.4. Objectives*

The educational study and the field study have their own goals but are interrelated.

The educational objectives consist of designing, creating, and implementing activities based on the traditional games selected, constituting a playful microproject, with the ultimate aim of mobilizing mathematical and scientific content in the players.

In the sense of qualitative case studies, hypotheses are proposed here as research questions. Thus our research hypothesis, in the case study that brings together the two educational and field studies, is the following:

"The three traditional games selected have proven mathematical and scientific potential, so they can trigger thoughts and communication that bring together mathematical and scientific content, if they are implemented through an appropriate and efficient didactic design".

This is not properly a "hypothesis" but rather the nucleus of a group of research questions that we have classified as "how", "what", and "how many" concerning the possibility of achieving the educational and research objectives.

How?

How is it possible to demonstrate manifestations of mathematical-scientific content through the creation and implementation of a playful microproject of an ethnomathematical nature? If the games used are able to stimulate mathematical and scientific thinking in the players, in game activities and in the construction of game materials, will we be able to capture meaningful evidence of these activations by observing the players?

If the participants who play interact in pairs, how can we better capture the reasoning of the pairs (on videotape or through observation)? Can this be done by observing their actions, listening to their conversations, asking them questions, answering their questions, or analysing their productions?

What?

What are the elements of mathematical and scientific concepts or procedures that are activated by these games? Are they only conceptualization or also reasoning? Are they related to the curricular goals of primary education? Are they related to each game, or are they common to the entire playful microproject? Can the existence of activation episodes related to the didactic design be affirmed?

How many?

To what extent can we affirm something more than sporadic manifestations? Can we quantify the evidences in the playful microproject? Play activities and making play materials are carried out. Do these two situations have a similar educational potential, proven by quantifying evidence of both types?

#### **2. Materials and Methods**

#### *2.1. Educational Methodology. Playful Microproject*

Microprojects are interdisciplinary teaching proposals that have the objective of developing skills from a social constructivist perspective, creating activities based on relevant signs from one or more cultures [44,80]. In this work, the signs are traditional games and the activities are focused on play, to which we have designed a "playful microproject". We selected three traditionally inspired board games related to different cultures, taking into account the results of prior anthropological and analytical studies.

The games selected are: The Dog and the Goats (Africa: Canary Islands, Guanche culture), The Towers of the Alhambra (Southern Europe: Spain, Nasrid culture), and Mijnlieff (Northern Europe: Scandinavia, Viking culture).

The game "The Dog and the Goats" is a variation of "Checkers", specific to the Canary Islands, highly established amongst the peoples of a fundamentally pastoral culture [81]. This traditional game was made popular by the "Guanche" people, of Berber origin, who inhabited the Canary Islands before the Spanish conquest in the 15th century [82]. Due to the geological formations of the zone, the islanders made their game boards on flat, smooth stones, which are conserved today (Figure 2). As far as the pieces are concerned, they probably used small stones, seeds, or shells. As regards the rules, these have varied little over the centuries [83]. The game simulates the actions of a dog responsible for helping the shepherd herd the goats, which are feeding freely in the countryside. The goats don't want to enter the pen and, between them, try to stop the dog by grouping around it. The board is made up of 16 (4 × 4) square or rectangular spaces, whose corners indicate the places to be occupied by the pieces or checkers. There are two types of pieces: 12 white pieces that represent the goats and a single black piece that represents the dog. The objective of the game is to be the first to completely stop the movements of the other player. In other words, the player with the goats will win if he or she manages to immobilise the dog, surrounding it without leaving any spaces. The dog will win if it manages to capture enough goats to avoid being surrounded, jumping over them as in the game "Checkers". The dog always starts the game, moving from the centre vertex towards any other empty neighbouring vertex. It can move forwards or backwards but only one space at a time, except if it can jump over a goat, capturing it, or by doing successive capture jumps in a row. The goats also move one space at a time, always sideways or forwards and, unlike the dog, never backwards. They cannot capture the dog by jumping over it, either.

The game "The Towers of the Alhambra" was created by Francisco López Martin in 2012 [84], set in the emblematic monument of the Andalusian city of Granada: The Alhambra. This genuine fortress of the Nasrid culture was built before the 15th century and includes 35 towers connected by walls, palaces, Arab baths, houses, and gardens, constituting the most important architectural ensemble of Muslim origin in Europe. The game is from the Halma (jump in Greek) family, a concept devised by George Howard Monk in 1883 [85]. In these games, pieces jump over each other to fill the opposite squares. The board, in the form of a checkerboard, is the lid of a box made out of wood and decorated with the traditional ornamental technique known as "marquetry" (Figure 3). This craft is still practiced in Granada and consists of covering a wooden object with small geometric pieces of wood, mother of pearl, or bone such as with a puzzle. There are five pieces for each player. The pieces are small metal sculptures that represent the most striking of the towers of the north wall (bronze) and the south wall (copper) of the Alhambra. The aim

of the game is to be the first to move all pieces to the opponent's starting area, so that the opponent wall is "conquered". To do so, it is necessary to move all of the pieces forwards crossways (never diagonally) to adjacent squares. It is possible to make simple or multiple jumps over your own pieces, but not over your opponent's, with the exception of the tallest tower (guide tower) which can jump over the opponent's pieces and is the only one that can move backwards, if no other move is possible.

**Figure 2.** The Dog and the Goats game board with pieces at start position [83].

**Figure 3.** Board and pieces for the Towers of the Alhambra game, separate and with the initial starting point of the pieces (top). Towers of the Alhambra walls and Granada marquetry objects (bottom). (Source: own creation).

The game "Minjlieff" was created in 2010 by Andy Hopwood, inspired by ancient Talf type games [86]. It was named best abstract game in the 2010 UK Games Expo, the most relevant board games convention in Britain. The launch of the Android version has made it popular, as it can be played online. Talf are old Germanic board games that were played on a square board, simulating two armies, and they imitated the military successes of Viking attacks. They spread wherever the Vikings passed through, including Iceland, Britain, Ireland, and Lapland [87]. The playing of board games fits into the cultural habits of these Nordic groups, given that winter lasted for months and Viking families stayed inside their homes, which were spaces for feasts, conceiving projects, preparing expeditions, and relaxing with board games. Viking culture is hugely attractive in modern society, with its influence being appreciated in music, literature, cinema, and games [88,89]. It is a game for two players; each with different coloured pieces moved one square at a time. There are four signs that characterize the four types of existing pieces and indicate the moves that the opponent can make: towards, away, neighbouring squares, or squares on a common vertex. The board is very original, as it is formed in different ways with four square boards containing 2 × 2 squares (Figure 4). The symbols on the pieces are inspired by runes, signs that made up part of the Viking alphabet and that were typically engraved on stones (Figure 4). Each player has eight pieces, two of each symbol. During play, each piece determines the squares where the opponent can play his or her next piece. If a player is unable to do what the piece indicates, he loses his turn and the opponent puts another one where he wants. The objective of the game is to get the highest possible score, with each point obtained by placing three pieces of the same colour in a row (vertical, horizontal, or diagonal), as in the game "Three in a row". The game ends when no more pieces can be played.

**Figure 4.** Boards and pieces from the game Minjlieff (top and bottom left). Viking runes and box engraved with the Viking Valknut symbol (bottom right) [90–93].

In order to design the playful microproject activities, special attention has been paid to mathematical and scientific content, but aspects relating to technology, engineering, and art that can be worked with in the games have also been taken into account, exploiting their potential for developing STEAM learning.

#### *2.2. Research Methodology: Case Study*

The research methodology followed for the development of the case study is qualitative, descriptive, and interpretative.

The data-gathering techniques employed were direct, observations of the participants were recorded in a field notebook, and the video recording of the microproject was undertaken during the implementation sessions. At all times, a camera was placed on a tripod or held by the researcher, providing video and audio recording of all the evidence, behaviours, and conversations of the students for later analysis. In addition, the researcher in charge of the implementation manually wrote down in a notebook any action that might be relevant

to the investigation, resulting in approximately 20 pages of annotations on the sessions conducted. The notes were also analysed.

To interpret the information, we carried out a content analysis [94], with the aim of finding situations that involve mathematical and scientific processes or concepts, activated in the players during the construction and use of the selected games.

Given that we found no precedent techniques contextualized in games, we generated them as part of the study [95], from the results of the analytical study, in which mathematical and scientific content was shown that can be worked on with the traditional games selected. An instrument has been created that combines this mathematical and scientific content [96] associated with the games with the essential components of culture established by Huxley [97]: artefacts, mentifacts, and sociofacts.

Looking in detail at these components for the specific case of a game, we can understand artefacts (material technology of a social group) as being the game materials, that is, board and pieces, mentifacts (abstract elements via which the culture of a group is guided) as the objectives and challenges in the game, and sociofacts (laws that are related with links between individuals and the group [98]), as being the organization rules of the game. The categories are thus obtained a priori, and grouped into three types, for the games implementation analysis (Table 1).

Based on this instrument, a check-list (Appendix A, Table A1) was created and applied to each player, collecting the data of evidence of the categories activated in the players by the game, captured on the recorded video or through observation. The evidences of each category were obtained through this check-list, applying the content analysis and its interpretation to the quotes of the players obtained in the recorded video and to the annotations collected in the field notebook.

**Table 1.** Data analysis instrument. Categories corresponding to mathematical and scientific content associated with artefacts, mentifacts, and sociofacts of each traditional board game of the playful microproject.



**Table 1.** *Cont*.

#### **3. Results**

#### *3.1. Results of the Educational Study. Implementation of the Microproject*

The playful microproject was implemented, with a total of 32 participants (16 girls and 16 boys) between 7 and 12 years old (Primary Education). Participating players were recruited: 16 in a non-formal education centre in the city of Granada (Spain), 12 in a non-formal education centre in Maracena, a city in the province of Granada, (Spain), and 4 in a group of children of neighbours of one of the researchers, in the city of Granada. The players participating were randomly selected by the heads of each non-formal education centre. The intention was not to have a homogeneous group of students, but to form play groups with students of various types and abilities. After receiving an explanation of the experiment, they volunteered to participate.

Each participant was assigned a code (Appendix A, Table A2).

The implementation was extended over four months, involving three 60-min sessions for each game, organized as follows:

Initial session: The players were grouped into pairs. Each pair was assigned a board game that was the exclusive basis for all activities. The Dog and the Goats was assigned to six pairs (12 participants), the Towers of the Alhambra to another six (12 participants), and Minjlieff to four (eight participants). The traditional board game assigned was presented along with its origin and elements of the culture it is related to, employing different materials (a ppt presentation, drawings, flash cards, and elements that can be handled). A story of our own creation was told, "The tale of Guanche", which involved the story of a shepherd from the Canary Islands passionate about board games whose wish was to create his own game, to which he travelled all around the world discovering different cultures and learning the games they played. After finding discovering the cultural origin of the game, the players dressed up as characters from the culture in the past, they themselves creating

the costume with fabric, plastic, and card. To do so they made hats, shields, and other dress elements, taking measurements, drawing, and cutting out. Now in their costumes, the participants assumed the role of locals entrusted with making the game board and pieces. They used recycled materials (boxes, caps, and cartons) and decorated the board to taste with figures from the culture in question (Figure 5).

**Figure 5.** Construction of game materials for the traditional games selected. Top to bottom: The Dog and the Goats (top), The Towers of the Alhambra (centre), and Mijnlieff (bottom). (Source: Own creation).

Development session: The participants again entered into role play with the constructed material (board and pieces). The rules for their assigned games were explained to them, they familiarized themselves with the games and played them a number of times with help.

Closing session: The participants once again went through the role play process and played the board games in pairs, but this time without help, making their own decisions.

#### *3.2. Research Results. Evidence of Activation of Mathematical and Scientific Content*

The details of each player were taken, during interaction with partner or with the researcher, via video recording and field notes.

Even while being aware that a category can be repeated in the same player various times, for the data analysis, if a player stated a category, subsequent posterior evidence of that category was no longer counted. This is done in order to specify the content analysis, reducing it to a maximum of 672 pieces of data (32 players by 21 categories). We understand "evidence of a category" as being an action or verbal expression from the player (comment, response, or question), in which the content associated to the category manifests itself. Examples of evidence of each category for each game are shown in Tables 2–4. Both observations and the transcription of words expressed by the participants are included. The players who showed evidence, the situation in which the category was evidenced, and examples of evidence for each category are tabulated.

**Table 2.** Codes of the players who showed evidence, evidence situations, and examples of evidences of categories in the game "The dog and the goats".


**Table 3.** Codes of the players who showed evidence, evidence situations, and examples of evidences of categories in the game "The towers of the Alhambra".


**Table 4.** Codes of the players who showed evidence, evidence situations, and examples of evidences of categories in the game "Mijnlieff".



**Table 4.** *Cont*.

With "The dog and the goats" the players show great interest in Guanche culture, they ask why they played with stones, what games they played, and if it still exists. There has been observation of identifications of elemental flat shapes that intervene in the boards: square, rectangle, and triangle. Regarding relationships of order, various players initially placed their pieces following an order they named. Then, when playing, a player moves the pieces following the order of placement and not by game strategy.

They state their game strategies: "If I move along the corners it's more difficult for them to take me", and justify their actions, although they don't constitute a strategy: "I'm slow because if I think, I play better". Experimenting is interpreted by one as cheating when another tries to take two at a time as an experiment. They self-assess, trying to find the reasons for their mistakes, recognizing they have moved without thinking or have made a mistake when moving: "I should have made another more correct move", and conclude with ideas for improving. "Next time I'll wait to take" or "I need to pay more attention". All of the above shows that the participants have played in a conscious manner. A pair wanted to keep playing when time was up and said they would ask for the game when they returned to the playroom, and a player even said he would use it to teach his sister how to count, inventing a didactic application for this game.

In the game "The Towers of the Alhambra" it is observed that, in the construction of the board, the players recognize a rectangle and a square, making reference to its particular shape. In the pieces, which are clearly three-dimensional, they differentiate cube and straight prism. They make mistakes in the placement of the pieces, tending to move them diagonally along the square, as it is the direction that the starting squares go, when the rules require moving to adjacent squares. This makes them focus on directions on the plane that form straight angles. They design strategies trying to gain advantages (one moves all the towers together, another only when the opponent jumps over a piece), although other actions don't make sense (a player retreats from the opposing towers when they get near). Evaluating results at the end of the game is an exercise of reflection that they do quite competently. "I made a mistake because I moved too quickly", "I didn't play well", and from which they draw conclusions: "I'll pay more attention next time", "I need to listen more to your advice" or "I'm not going to start anymore".

It can be seen how the player of this game connected with the monument that it is inspired by. Some indicated that the real towers are harder than these, another made a reference to the towers of the monument as a defensive element, comparing it with its mode of play, another player explained she was Arabic and didn't know the Alhambra and another said: "Thanks to the game, when I go to the Alhambra I'm going to know what the towers are". Some parents present showed an interest in the game, as it was based on the monument in their city, expressing that it was very beautiful. This all favours social awareness and cultural knowledge.

With the game "Mijnlieff" there is a manifestation of the category of making classifications suggested by the pieces, which the players classify with two criteria: colour and

symbol shapes. Counting is manifested when counting the total pieces and those for each player, along with the board squares. A participant counts the drawings made on his or her box, recognizing their regularity, and another draws a mandala, explaining what is repeated on it.

Proposing hypotheses is evidenced with expressions such as: "If I play this piece first its better". When playing, statements of logical reasoning occur, such as: "Because it makes it difficult for X to be able to play hers", "If I move this piece, it's not good for my opponent" or "I've done a good move because X hasn't been able block me", even "I can't win because I've got pieces that I can't play left". An alternative referring to a future play is demonstrated: "I'm going to play this piece, because with this other one, X can't move to this square anymore and so I can move there afterwards". Designing strategies is demonstrated with expressions such as: "If I put the pieces on the corners, I save 4 that won't be blocked", which requires thinking about their own move and that of the opponent at the same time. Experimenting has been evidenced in the making of the board and the pieces. The strategy of a player who stated that he was leaving a piece for the end, because this stopped the opponent from winning the game, stood out for its ingenuity. It is the piece that requires another piece to be placed near to it. As the game is at an advanced stage, this piece normally means that opponents cannot place their piece and lose their turn and even the game.

Once the registered evidence was commented on qualitatively, we completed the analysis with a quantitative analysis, providing the frequencies relative to the categories regarding the total number of players who interacted with each game (Table 5). As already indicated, the registry of the evidence has taken place considering each player, who has been counted only once per category manifested. We also provided the relative overall frequencies of the microproject, constituted by the three games as a whole, which have been calculated using the weighted mean of the relative frequencies of the three games.


**Table 5.** Relative frequencies of each category, evidenced with regards to the total players involved in each game (N) and overall relative frequencies in the microproject (weighted mean of the three games), expressed as a percentage.

> The data from the microproject show that 15 categories have been evidenced with a mean frequency of over 50%, with those most manifested by the players being: identifying

flat shapes and three-dimensional bodies, making classifications, recognizing the surface area and volume of a body, and exercising observation, with mean frequencies of over 90%, whereas the least evidenced, with 3%, is predicting, as only one player manifested it.

There is evidence of the three types of categories generated (artefacts, mentifacts, and sociofacts). On taking the arithmetic mean of the frequencies of the different categories included within each type we found that, in artefacts, the mean frequency is 65%, in mentifacts, it is greater, 80%, dropping to 48% in sociofacts. This downturn is due to the fact that some categories of this type have been evidenced in few participants. For example, predicting, with 3%, and experimenting, with 30%, as overall frequencies in the microproject. In contrast, there are categories grouped in the mentifacts with the maximum overall frequencies of the microproject.

#### **4. Discussion and Conclusions**

The results of this study indicate that it has been possible to design, create, and implement activities based on traditional board games, providing evidence that mathematical and scientific processes or concepts have been activated in the players via interaction with the selected games. It has also been reflected that this is possible by taking these games for the creation of a playful microproject of an ethnomathematical nature, in which such games stimulate mathematical and scientific thinking in the players in two situations: playing situation and situation of construction of materials of the game.

We have confirmed the power of these games for education, generally coinciding with other works [37–51] in the context of mathematical and science processes, concepts, and properties [35,36,52–60]. Likewise, less investigated STEAM aspects are examined, observing that the construction of the game materials also puts these contents into action, coinciding with another study [61].

We have confirmed the power of these games for education, coinciding in general with other works [37–51] within the context of the processes, concepts, and properties mathematics and science [35,36,52–60]. We also examine less investigated matters, observing that the construction of the materials of the games also brings these contents into action, coinciding with another study [61].

Furthermore, these gaming materials are cultural components that are highly valued in ethnomathematics as elements that manifest mathematical thought characteristic of a group. Thus, we verified the importance of artefacts in the knowledge of a culture and in the processes of mathematical and scientific enculturation [18–34].

We investigated games in two situations: from the perspective of their use as a playful activity as well as from the ethnomathematical standpoint of the artisan that makes them [98]. For this, the characteristics of the game must be understood, the materials must be selected and shaped, and the aesthetic form appropriate to the game must be applied. The merging of the two situations in the microproject activated the elements of mathematical, scientific, and STEAM knowledge.

Tables 2–4 show confirmation of the activities in relation to these contents in both situations of the experiment conducted by the players by examples of expressions and deeds faced by the players. The manifestations of certain categories in the situation of playing, and others in the crafts-engineering situation of making, proved more numerous.

It bears noting the categories that were manifested while playing more than while making, or vice versa, and analysing this circumstance qualitatively and quantitatively, as shown in Table 6.


**Table 6.** Frequencies of each category, evidenced in the situations of playing and/or making, in the three games.

Quantitatively, 13 categories were found to be evidenced more in playing (62%), 7 (33%) were evidenced more in making, and 3 (14%) were evidenced equally in both situations (Figure 6).

Qualitatively, the categories most evidenced were 1 (Identifying flat shapes and threedimensional bodies) and 5 (Making counts), which were evidenced in five options of the six possible, and this occurred more in making situations. These were followed the 3 (Making relationships of order) that proved equal in situations, 7 (Giving exact and approximate measurements) more in making, 11 (Recognizing the surface area and volume of a body) more in playing, and 16 (Demonstrating logical reasoning) more in playing. These data

reflect consistency among the contents and situations in which they were manifested the most. It should be highlighted that these most evidenced categories form an essential part of the contents and competences of the curriculum of mathematics and sciences of Primary Education in Spain.

**Figure 6.** Comparison of the situations in which analytical categories were evidenced.

On the other hand, the playful microproject proved to be a successful didactic proposal in terms of its objectives. Thus, the contribution of this study to the field of Education is important because it shows that the microproject implemented ensures that activities in these games activate an essential part of the core of the curriculum, which should be completed by the student between 7 and 12 years of age.

The three games involved are equivalent in their quantity of manifestations. All the information gathered for each game is another contribution to Cultural Anthropology. This can be used in play centres and workshops for non-formal education, orienting the users on the learning implicit in these games. Therefore, we provide valuable information for cultural knowledge and for mathematical-scientific enculturation within settings of formal, as well as non-formal, education. Overall, a theoretic framework has been developed for ethnomathematics as a research program, and the results can be applied to practical socio-educational efforts with an intercultural focus. The contributions of the present work are presented in Figure 7.

**Figure 7.** Contributions to cultural and educational fields with an ethnomathematical focus.

The limitations of the present study involve the setting and the interactions with the players since the making and use of these games could not be experienced in student surroundings of formal education due to the restrictions of the use of materials and relations with other people from outside the schools, due to the existing COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, interviews could not be made with players after the implementation of the microproject. Both aspects, i.e., experimentation in a broader sample that includes schools

(formal education) and interviews with the players included in the microproject to delve into the cognitive aspects, constitute perspectives for future investigation in this line.

Overall, the three traditional selected games have favoured the activation of mathematical and scientific content in a STEAM context, being appropriate as cultural signs for creating a playful microproject. When making their gaming materials and playing with them, 21 categories established a priori have been revealed. These categories were related to the concepts of artefacts, mentifacts, and sociofacts that characterize culture [97], forming three typologies. Evidence of these three types of categories was found, by means of a checklist [99] developed and applied to the players, with the mentifacts being the most evidenced.

They are important in mathematical and scientific learning; content related to the nature of scientific and mathematical thinking, such as the formulation of hypotheses, recognition of regularities, the establishment of relationships of order, strategy design, logical reasoning, and the evaluation of situations, with categories evidenced with mean percentages exceeding 56% of players.

In the playful setting and STEAM context in which the activities of the microproject have been developed, other mathematical content has been activated, such as: counting and putting forward numerical questions particular to arithmetic (mean frequencies over 85%), together with identifying the flat shapes and three-dimensional bodies particular to geometry (mean frequency of 100%). Scientific content has also been activated, such as: recognizing length, surface, and volume of a body (mean frequencies higher than 63%), giving exact and approximate measurements (mean frequencies over 56%) and identifying properties of materials (mean frequency of 49%). This all stimulates us to propose this games-based microproject for learning mathematics and science in a STEAM context, for non-formal and formal settings alike.

In addition, the implementation of the playful microproject has meant that attention has been drawn to traditional games of diverse origins, favouring respect and understanding towards all cultures, thus promoting key values of intercultural education.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, A.F.-O. and M.L.O.; Data curation, M.J.E.-G. and M.L.O.; Formal analysis, A.F.-O., M.J.E.-G. and M.L.O.; Methodology, A.F.-O. and M.L.O.; Resources, A.F.-O. and M.L.O.; Supervision, A.F.-O. and M.L.O.; Visualization, A.F.-O.; Writing—original draft, A.F.- O., M.J.E.-G. and M.L.O.; Writing—review & editing, A.F.-O. and M.L.O. Project administration, A.F.-O. Funding acquisition, A.F.-O. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research was funded by University of Granada, grant numbers PPJI2018-06 and PID 18-363.

**Institutional Review Board Statement:** The study was conducted according to the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki, and approved by Ethics Committee of University of Granada (protocol code 1704/CEIH/2020 and date of approval 30 September 2020).

**Informed Consent Statement:** Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study.

**Data Availability Statement:** The data presented in this study are available on request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available due to privacy.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.

#### **Appendix A**

**Table A1.** Check-list to collect evidences of the categories activated in each player by the game.



#### **References**


## *Article* **Educational Hall Escape: Increasing Motivation and Raising Emotions in Higher Education Students**

**Almudena Macías-Guillén 1, Raquel Montes Díez 2, Lucía Serrano-Luján <sup>2</sup> and Oriol Borrás-Gené 2,\***


**Abstract:** Educational Escape Room is an innovative method used in classrooms to motivate students. This article describes a version of Educational Escape Room applied to undergraduate students. Specifically, this work presents an adaptation of the method called Educational Hall Escape, characterized by the resolution of challenges in a game-adapted room in which several student groups compete to finish the activity in the least amount of time. To date, the Educational Hall Escape method applied to the field of business economy has not been reported in the literature. The objective of the study is to analyze the influence of the Educational Hall Escape method on the learning processes and emotions of students during the activity and its impact on their motivation and the reinforcement their competences and knowledge. An experiment was designed in which the class was divided into a control group and an experimental group. To measure the impact of the experience in the students, two tools were used: an exam and the Gamefulquest survey. Despite the fact that the results obtained show that the students perceived the experience as a game, it improved their motivation and increased their proclivity to have an emotional bond with the subject, the academic results remained steady.

**Keywords:** gamification; serious games; game-based learning; escape room; motivation; higher education

### **1. Introduction**

Educational simulation based on games, objects, or dynamic processes, is a teaching tool that could enhance the understanding of the subject content since it opens up the comprehension of ideas and abstract concepts. Educative simulation is ideal for manipulating and modifying the learning process, depending on the educational needs of each moment, and it is useful in transporting us to a place and time that would be impossible to reach as a real experience in the classroom [1].

The use of innovative teaching methodologies based on games is increasingly employed in the classroom. Game-Based Learning (GBL) is a methodology centered on the educational potential of the games as an enabling tool to learn in a motivational, creative and participative form [2]. Escape Room is a learning strategy that is increasingly used, which promotes the motivation and commitment of the students to the learning process [3].

The present study aims to examine the emotions produced by an Educational Escape Room (EER) experience. The emotions in the activity deal with an early feeling of stress, followed by satisfaction as the students solve the challenges. The evolution of the feelings is related to the self-confidence students experience during the activities regardless of the results of the game (win/loss).

It specifically applies an EER variation, named Educational Hall Escape (EHE), consisting of the performance of the game by several student teams simultaneously in the same educational space (classroom) and in a competitive environment. EHE is a tool that

**Citation:** Macías-Guillén, A.; Díez, R.M.; Serrano-Luján, L.; Borrás-Gené, O. Educational Hall Escape: Increasing Motivation and Raising Emotions in Higher Education Students. *Educ. Sci.* **2021**, *11*, 527. https://doi.org/10.3390/ educsci11090527

Academic Editors: José Carlos Piñero Charlo, María Teresa Costado Dios, Enrique Carmona Medeiro and Fernando Lloret

Received: 9 July 2021 Accepted: 7 September 2021 Published: 9 September 2021

**Publisher's Note:** MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

**Copyright:** © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).

motivates, enhances and strengthens skills and knowledge dealing with the subject's topic, i.e., introduction to business.

Our goal consists of analyzing the appropriateness of a ludic activity and its acceptance by the students enrolled in a Marketing Degree. The principal aspects to consider when reproducing this model in different educational environments will be identified and detailed.

In order to achieve this objective, an educational research experiment was designed. The tool applied is an EHE. The class was split into control and experimental groups to assess the teaching impact. This experience is based on four research hypotheses:

**Hypothesis 1 (H1).** *Students enrolled in the EHE exhibit better academic results than students who were not.*

**Hypothesis 2 (H2).** *Students enrolled in the EHE felt the activity as a complete game experience in all its dimensions.*

**Hypothesis 3 (H3).** *Students enrolled in the EHE showed higher signs of motivation than those who were not.*

**Hypothesis 4 (H4).** *Students enrolled in the EHE felt more emotions during the activity than those who did not perform it.*

Throughout this article, a literature review on Educational Escape Rooms is conducted, in Section 2, to obtain a brief state of the art summary of its application. In Section 3, Methodology, presents the development of the experience and the obtained EHE methodology. Finally, the results are discussed and a conclusion from the experience is displayed.

#### **2. Theoretical Background**

#### *2.1. "Serious Games" and "Gamification"*

The use of game elements in education has been widely utilized since the beginning of the education system, mainly at preschool and primary school levels. Play in school has been taken on the normal characteristics and expectation of formal schooling [4]. It was a question of time for games to start being applied to higher education.

Concerning the subject the present study deals with, game theory found a natural place in economics [5]. The first application of gaming to economics dates back to Cournot (1838) [6], and several studies describing its application have been reported since then. This natural link between the game and the economic field results in an attractive arena for teaching methods. As McDonald expounds in his book "The Game of Business", business theory and its management can be understood as an oligopolistic game, where the player must face real world situations [7]. Thus, game-based learning techniques are applied worldwide to encourage students, irrespective of the level of education.

The methodology consisting of the use of the fundamentals and technology of games to understand real-life complexity has received several names, such as "simulation games", "serious games", "applied games", "persuasive games", and "gamification" [8]. The terms most commonly found in the literature when reporting an EER, as in the present study, are "serious games" and "gamification". Here, we underline the differences between them.

"Serious games" are based on complete games, with the entertainment component in the background and education-centered [9,10]. They have an explicit educational purpose and possess all game elements, such as specific rules, boundaries, procedures, players, objectives, and they also look like games despite their pedagogical aim [11,12]. "Simulations" are also considered "serious games", since they allow students to be introduced into different learning situations, complementing formal learning [10,13,14]. "Serious games" have enjoyment (or the game itself) as an intrinsic value, and an extrinsic value, consisting of the pursued goal which is the sake of beneficial consequences different from

the game's sake [8], that would be the learning process in the context of this study. Mayer also underlines the connection between game, emotions and learning in "serious games".

As a "serious game", "gamification" is one of the most referenced methods to enhance the motivation in the classrooms during recent decades, and it is defined as "The process of game-thinking and game mechanics to engage users and solve problems" [15]. Marczewski proposes different approaches to the application of games or their techniques within the so-called "game thinking", with a final purpose other than entertainment, "gamification" and "serious games" [14].

Although the origin of the term "gamification" is unknown, the first use of the term was in 2008 in the digital media industry [16], defined as "the use of game design elements in non-game contexts". The application of the "gamification" method to the teaching environment has been analyzed by several authors, and the elements mostly identified were identified: game mechanics, application type, education level, subject, implementation and obtained the results obtained by students [17].

#### *2.2. Emotion*

A number of recent studies state both negative and positive emotionally arousing events are better remembered than emotionally neutral events [18–20]. Thus, "Emotional memory is the result of storing the information that was accompanied by stressful factors through which the information is more easily fixed" [21].

The stimuli connected to emotions affecting an individual's feelings can persist in memory with higher intensity than those not linked to emotion [22]. Additionally, they can help with memory retention and the recall of information linked to those events or stimuli [23].

#### *2.3. Educational Escape Rooms and Motivation*

An Escape Room (ER) is a game in which a team of players cooperatively discover clues, solve puzzles, and accomplish tasks in one or more rooms in order to progress and accomplish a specific goal in a limited amount of time [24]. Escape Rooms are Live-Action Games that engage directly with the game world, and they match the learning environment of the classroom perfectly, as recent publications point out. Educational Escape Rooms (EER) propose challenges with educational approaches in which students are organized in teams to solve puzzles and challenges associated with the content of the curriculum in a limited time [25]. They offer more motivation and engagement than traditional educational games [26]. At the higher education level (high school and university) in which games are not often played in the classroom, ERs offer sophistication and novelty to teaching practices that students value and appreciate. The published EER experiences that are being applied worldwide at a university-/college-level report positive feedback from students.

The Escape Room activity is categorized either as "gamification" by some authors [3,27–31] or as "serious game" by others [9,32–36]. Both techniques, "serious game" and "gamification", share a main goal, i.e., to foster motivation and create engagement. Their differences are well described in the literature [8]. Furthermore, when applied to the education field, EER is also considered a problem-based learning (PBL), since its features are also included in the ER scenario: "ill-structured problem", "real-life" scenario, open-ended tasks, student autonomy and student collaboration [26].

The Escape Room is a tool that is being used in various fields including the disciplines known as STEM: science, technology, engineering and mathematics [37], as well as numerous and recent escape room experiences in health sciences [25,38,39]. However, despite the numerous studies reporting the application of game tools in Economics and Business fields, no Educational Escape Rooms are found in the literature.

The essential elements of an Escape Room are: (1) the escape rooms (one or several chained or multilinear rooms); (2) challenges, riddles or tasks (various elements whose resolution lead to the exit); (3) physical/online items (to solve tasks within the escape room); (4) game master (people in charge of guiding the participants if required, by offering hints); (5) narrative (common thread of the game that relates all the challenges). In the Educational Escape Room, the design is simplified if the narrative does not act as a common thread that relates all the challenges; however, this is less immersive because the narrative itself motivates the player to live the experience [25].

The game master (GM) is the "big brother" of the ER activity, and EER's game master is not the exception. The game master has to determine the balance of guidance during the game, and he/she conforms the guidance's intensity by estimating the players' skill level [40]. The game master's skill is determined by the coincidence of the estimated time to solve the challenge with the reality.

The better the EER is designed, the less game-master implication is required. Frustration is the only negative feeling students could find during the performance of the EER, since students should be able to solve the challenges and puzzles. There are four facets a game-master must have to succeed in the EER performance. Firstly, the correct design of the challenges so that the time limit coincides with an appropriate amount of time for the level of ability of the students. Teachers should communicate with their students that the activity is going to be considered for the subject assessment, since it is important to encourage students to study and prepare for the activity [29]. Secondly, the story behind the game should engage the students and their choices should be linked to implications; making the players matter is key to designing a successful ER [26]. Thirdly, during the activity, the GM should gather the information regarding the timing and students' attitudes, looking for features to improve the next EER's design. Fourthly, the facet of guiding the students teams during the activity, to control the correct performance and to give hints or clues when needed. Generally, students prefer not to receive any guidance from the GM but instead become immersed in an auto-guided activity [40].

#### Motivation

Gaming encourages students to persist in the task and offers a type of learning context, two conditions which are essential for deep learning engagement. EER persuades students to think about the material in a new way, which suggests that the potential benefit of ER goes beyond a mere novelty factor [41].

In general, traditional teaching methodologies such as simple exposure of content on a blackboard, through lessons, PowerPoint presentations and textbooks alone do not motivate today's students, who are Millennials or belong to Generation Z, to engage in a topic. Since Millennial students yearn for active engagement and they are motivated by achievement and affiliation, designing EER challenges becomes a highly compelling activity, which increases their interest on the subject [28,42,43].

A review of the recent literature shows that the main positive effect of EER consists of the increase in the motivation of students [26,27,29,40,44]. Nevertheless, further benefits are identified:


Due to EER's high intrinsic motivation for learning, several authors invite other disciplines to apply it [40,44,46]. Compared to traditional teaching methods, students feel engaged in problem solving, they are focused on their main goal, and they aim to succeed, which requires to successfully communicate with the rest of the team, as well as collaborate and use their social skills.

In order to encourage students to review the course material before the EER performance, including the activity as a part of the subject's assessment is a key factor [28,29].

#### **3. Methodology**

The study was carried out in the 2019–2020 academic year among 56 students enrolled in the subject "Introduction to Business" as part of the Marketing Degree, during six weeks in November–December.

The objective of the subject is to provide the student with a vision of the reality in which the business world operates and also to ease the students into understanding and analysis of the management task as a role to play in their future professional career. The assessment system of the subject consists of continuous evaluation (20%), plus a final theoretical exam (40%) and a practical exam (40%).

The subject is taught mainly via face-to-face teaching in class. However, theoretical materials and other practical tests are found in a university online learning platform. The online site used was Moodle, a Learning Management System (LMS).

A special end of semester session was organized in order to strengthen knowledge, motivate students and to generate emotions, bringing better knowledge retention. The class was split into two groups, control and experimental. The second group was introduced to an Educational Hall Escape (EHE), while the control group worked on the same topics, having to resolve the same exercises, but delivered with ordinary format in plain text. Both groups were required to use the same practical knowledge learnt in class during previous weeks. The educational objective of the activity performed, both in the control and experimental groups, was to reinforce specific knowledge of the subject, working on aspects such as emotion and motivation in the experimental group.

#### *3.1. Educational Hall Escape*

The study used the application of an Educational Hall Escape (EHE), a version of the standard educational escape room games [26]. This nomenclature does not exist in past scientific literature; however, it is used to differentiate from traditional commercial escape room dynamics. Aspects that they have in common are the fact they are carried out in a locked space, and the narrative flowing through a chain of puzzle/riddles to solve. The aim is to solve the riddles to win the game, not escaping from the room itself.

In the proposed EHE, students had to solve several consecutive conundrums without leaving the room by being quicker than the rest of the teams within a given set time.

The puzzles followed a theme that connected and gave consistency to the whole practice, and they were linked to the subject syllabus. Riddles had to be solved not solely by acquired subject knowledge but also by applying observation, ingenuity and teamwork.

Figure 1 shows the design and order of the activities that shape the EHE. It contains eight puzzles; six of them (from 2 to 7) have an educational objective linked to specific contents of the subject, as indicated in the figure. The other two puzzles (1 and 8) are the ones used to start the EHE and to end it. In addition, some complementary playful tests are collected that support the narrative of the EHE in elliptical form within Figure 1.

**Figure 1.** Organization and content of the different activities carried out in the EHE.

In terms of narrative, the chosen theme was appropriate for the student profiles as it was replicable in future learning. Students were given a job offer from an important multinational company to replace the current management team, due to retirement.

For those students who took part in the EHE, the experience started with the viewing of a short introductory video where the lecturers presented the plot, instructions and rules [47]. The quickest team in solving the riddles would be the winner and they would be hired as the company's new management team. Once the video was shown, a countdown was launch displaying the remaining time of the game.

The supporting test (Figure 1—ellipses) starts with a riddle which is hidden in a paperweight. Students must introduce the answer of the riddle into the digital platform to start the game. In addition, other tests were developed and completed during the activity, such as physical puzzles, codes that should be decrypted, riddles hidden into physical objects in the room (Figure 2), a digital padlock in a web and a video which hides a code inside of the narrative.

**Figure 2.** Examples of tests performed at the EHE.

#### *3.2. Physical Organization*

Two separate classrooms were booked in different locations to prevent any interference between both groups; one for the control group and a second one for the EHE group. The day before the activity, the students from both groups were told individually the time and location they had to go to.

The control group attended the usual classroom with the traditional master class layout. The control group was divided into five groups, each of which had five or six members. Each group was given a unique paper document with the activity description in the form of written questions. The questions, in terms of subject content, were identical to the riddles the second group had to solve. However, the dynamics of the activity differed, eliminating time pressure and narrative, both in the texts and in the questions from the whole practice. They did not visualize the introductory video and the lecture was presented as a traditional practical lecture, without games or emotions.

The experimental group attended a side classroom, smaller than standard lecture rooms and with a versatile layout. The room was decorated to create ambience and gain engagement from the students/players. The room had five stations, one for each team.

Each team had few physical elements required to solve some of the challenges in the EHE (such as conundrums or keys placed strategically in some objects inside the room). Each team had a laptop with access to the university virtual learning site where the challenges were found. Along with these, some accessories needed for the activity such as a paperweight with a code, a list of companies with additional information, a sheet with codes, a puzzle and other objects not intended to distract the participants' attention. The lecturers took the role of game master by being available to the teams as required.

The maximum duration of the activity was 50 min. The winning team would be the one that completed the activity the quickest.

#### *3.3. Virtual Organization*

The control group did not have access to the university learning online platform during the activity. The experimental group had access to the university online learning platform (Moodle) during the exercise so they could register the solutions to the challenges. This allowed them to have feedback on their progress and let lecturers monitor their movements and results for the study.

The Moodle tool "lessons" was used to implement the virtual side of the EHE. This tool allows the creation of sequential pages with content or questions and to branch out itineraries. In order to create separate records for each team, within the initial lesson and from the first challenge, each team followed a customized itinerary.

Across the respective itineraries' pages, the information needed to solve the challenges was becoming available once feedback was received for correct answers. Questions were used to check the content of the lessons had been absorbed by the students and had two formats: multiple-choice or numeric. In the multiple-choice questions, students had to select the correct answer from a list of 15 items to be able to pass to the next question. For each mistaken answer, the page went back to the original list rearranged, in order to prevent aleatory choices. In addition, a digital locker was used for one of the challenges, directing correct responses to a YouTube video with a hint to move forward.

Figure 3 shows the EHE Moodle design of one of the teams' itineraries. The other ones followed the same structure.

**Figure 3.** EHE design (lesson) in Moodle.

During the activity, students were allowed to consult their personal notes.

#### *3.4. Study Design*

3.4.1. Participants

For the design and validation of the activity, the class was divided into two groups, each of 28 students, created randomly, with a total of 56 participants. One group was experimental, and the second group was the control. Randomly, students were grouped into teams of five and six participants and subsequently assigned to the two main groups of study.

#### 3.4.2. Procedure

The experimental group had an hour and a half, and the control group had an hour and twenty-five minutes to carry out the EHE. Both groups spent the last twenty minutes completing a questionnaire about the session held in Moodle. Time organization is shown in Figure 4.

**Figure 4.** Temporal organization of the experiment.

In terms of analyzing the results and validation of the hypothesis, the study used three tools. Firstly, an exam carried out two weeks post-study. The exam consisted of a 20 question test, where students had to select answers from a four-item list and a penalty for incorrect answers. Seven of the questions were very similar for both the control group and the group taking the EHE. The idea was to verify the knowledge retention in both groups.

The second analytical tool, used to measure aspects such as motivation and emotion, was the Gameful Experience Questionnaire, Gamefulquest [48], based on 56 items organized in seven categories (Accomplishment, Challenge, Competition, Guided, Immersion, Playfulness and Social experience). This questionnaire measured the individual user's game experience in systems, here the EHE.

#### **4. Results**

Statistical analysis was performed using the computing environment R [49] and in particular the R-Likert library [50], for the questionnaire data.

#### *4.1. Testing Hypothesis H1*

In order to check whether the learning is greater for those students who enrolled in the EHE experience when compared to those who did not (Hypothesis H1), we consider the final evaluation of the subject. Figure 5a shows boxplots of final evaluation results for both control and experimental groups and a parametric t-test was performed showing that there were no significant differences between Control and Experimental groups (*p*-value = 0.3433).

**Figure 5.** (**a**) Boxplots of final evaluation results for both Control and Experimental groups; and (**b**) Boxplots of final evaluation results for Control and EHE Completed and EHE Not completed groups.

We also considered whether students participating in the EHE completed the experiment or not. Again, Figure 5b shows differences in the final evaluation between control/completed EHE and not completed EHE students. An analytical analysis shows that there are no significant differences between the three groups (*p*-value = 0.167) and when considering groups two by two, we observed that the students not completing the EHE experience differ from the other two groups. Table 1 shows numerical summaries of final evaluation for the different groups considered (Control, Experimental, EHE Completed and EHE Not Completed).


**Table 1.** Numerical summaries of final evaluation for the different groups considered (Control, Exper-


#### *4.2. Testing Hypothesis H2*

As mentioned above, after the EHE experience, students responded to a questionnaire based on 56 questions. The Gamefulquest [48] and the 56 questions are arranged in seven well-known dimensions: Accomplishment, Challenge, Competition, Guided, Immersion, Playfulness and Social Experience. A seven-point Likert-type scale was used for each question, ranging from "(1) strongly disagree" to "(7) strongly agree."

Out of the total of 56 students, only 47 students completed both the questionnaire and the evaluation process, 25 from the Control group and 22 from the experimental group (12 of which completed the experience and 10 did not).

For each of the 56 questions, we analyzed whether there were significant differences between the control and the hall escape groups (Hypothesis H2). To do this, we used both graphical and inferential methods. Whether a parametric or nonparametric test should be employed, for analyzing questionnaire data, has been somehow controversial. Many authors argue that for such discrete ordinal variables, a nonparametric test should be used. However, other authors argue that parametric tests are more robust and could also be employed for Likert data under some premises such as normality assumptions not being violated; see for instance Sullivan et al. [51].

After checking normality for each of the 56 different questions of the questionnaire, employing both graphical inspection (Q–Q plots) and two normality tests (the Kolmogorov– Smirnov test and the Shapiro–Wilk's W test) we concluded that nonparametric Mann– Whitney tests would be better used here and, therefore, Mann–Whitney tests were employed for testing significant differences between control and experimental groups in each one of the 56 questionnaire responses. Only 16 out of the 56 Mann–Whitney tests developed seem to be not significant (*p*-values > 0.05), which allows us to conclude that responses from students who took part in the EHE experiment differ markedly from those who did not took part in the gaming experience along with the seven dimensions of the questionnaire.

#### *4.3. Testing Hypotheses H3 and H4*

Apart from the seven dimensions considered in the Gamefulquest questionnaire, in this research we are especially interested in two particular aspects, namely motivation and emotion. Out of the 56 questions, we identified 13 questions related to emotion (Hypothesis H3) and 13 related to motivation (Hypothesis H4). Figures 6 and 7 present results of the questionnaire for the questions related to motivation and emotion, respectively.

**Figure 6.** Questionnaire questions related to motivation.

All these 26 questions show significant differences between the Escape Room and control students, i.e., *p*-values < 0.05 in the corresponding Mann–Whitney tests.

**Figure 7.** Questionnaire questions related to emotion.

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For the sake of completeness, and in order to define a quantitative variable measuring the Motivation and Emotion aspects of interest, we calculated the mean responses of those questionnaire items already identified as motivation or emotion questions. As expected, these two variables show significant differences between escape room and control students. Here, we use parametric t-test after checking normality premises are met (again using Q–Q plots and the Kolmogorov–Smirnov test and the Shapiro–Wilk's test). Boxplots presented in Figure 8a,b, showing graphical evidence and statistical test conclude that questionnaire

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responses are higher for experimental than control students with *p*-values < 0.001 for both motivation and emotion.

**Figure 8.** (**a**) Boxplot showing graphical evidence that the motivation questionnaire responses are higher for the experimental than the control group; and (**b**) Boxplot showing graphical evidence that the emotion questionnaire responses are higher for the experimental than the control group.

For the sake of completeness, Tables 2 and 3 show summary statistics for the mean responses of those questionnaire items identified as motivation or emotion questions.

**Table 2.** Numerical summaries for the mean responses of those questionnaire items identified as motivation for control and experimental groups: minimum (Min), 1st quantile (Q1), median (Med), Mean, 33rd quantile (Q3), maximum (Max) and standard deviation (SD)).


**Table 3.** Numerical summaries for the mean responses of those questionnaire items identified as emotion for control and experimental groups: minimum (Min), 1st quantile (Q1), median (Med), Mean, 33rd quantile (Q3), maximum (Max) and standard deviation (SD)).


#### **5. Discussion and Conclusions**

The research design is based on four hypotheses and their rejection and validation are shown. In addition, the Educational Hall Escape experience presented is easy to adapt, not only in higher education and business economics fields, but also in other subjects, disciplines and educational levels.

When dealing with EHE configuration and results, it is important to analyze the participants' progress and register their activity.

Several EHE aspects could be assessed by analyzing the results of the students, such as the level and puzzle adaptation, or the allotted time. To obtain this information, a virtual space in Moodle registered, monitored and recorded the students activity. This type of virtual resource offers the possibility of sending automatic feedback to students, to guide them during the process, either when the answer is correct or not, and determine whether or not they have to repeat the puzzle. Thus, a physical and a digital duality is conferred upon the experience, by combining tests with touchable elements, giving a more realistic context to the narrative, with other digital resources.

Teachers should pay attention to every event taking place inside the room and in the different teams in order to avoid a loss of motivation and to keep the students focused on the main goal of the objective of the activity, which is to generate emotions. In order to be able to do this, a minimum of two teachers must participate in the EHE and one of them must become the game master. Other studies in the literature underline the role of the game master during the performance of EER [40,52], since this figure offers extra guidance.

The first defined hypothesis deals with the improvement of the learning process of the experimental group that performed the EHE. In H1, it is stated that this group would achieve better results than the control group. The experiment looked for the students' emotional stimulation to improve their knowledge retention and memory. A number of recent studies state both negative and positive emotionally arousing events are better remembered than emotionally neutral events [18–20]. Thus, "Emotional memory is the result of storing the information that was accompanied by stressful factors through which the information is more easily fixed" [21]. The results, shown in Figure 5a,b, reject the hypothesis. Despite the fact that the exam results are slightly better for those who successfully finished the EHE, there is no statistical significance. The students who did not finish the EHE achieved worse results, but these are not significant. Thus, it is confirmed that applying this strategy does not worsen students' learning results when the experimental group is compared to the control group, provided that students finish the activity. It is of interest to recall here that the gaming experience took place in just a 2 h session and therefore we could not expect this to have a significant effect upon the whole evaluation of the semester. This lack of positive academic results is found in similar Educational Escape Room experiences reported in the literature [45,52,53].

The second hypothesis (H2) tries to answer whether EHE participants felt the game in all its dimensions, following the seven emotions once defined by Högberg et al. (2019) in a designed and validated questionnaire [48]. As a result, a remarkable game perfection difference was measured between the experimental and the control groups. It is clear from the outcome the appropriate design of the experimental activity strengthens the feelings generated by games, such as the motivation and the emotions that this research fosters. Despite the fact that there are other questionnaires, such as the one proposed by Hou and Chou [54] or GAMEX [55], that measure a number between two and five dimensions, they share the same goal, which is getting to know the game experience.

The last two hypotheses deal with two aspects that are key to this work, i.e., motivation (H3) and emotion (H4). As expected, the experimental group exhibits significatively better results for both cases, summarized in Figure 8a,b boxplots.

Using Escape Room as an educational strategy to foster student motivation is widely proposed in the literature [40,44,55], since it engages the students and maintains their attention.

Educational Hall Escape is based on the Educational Escape Room, providing two important extras:


Thus, the possibilities of this strategy for working on more skills than EER are slightly higher provided that the main features of it are kept, such as the room, the puzzles and the narrative.

Even though here it was demonstrated that the learning is not improved by the EHE, due to its brief application, the motivation of the students and their emotions increased notably. This fact can be used to engage the students with the subject.

The study presented here shows an experience that can be easily replicated in other fields, producing a positive impact on the motivation of the students who participate in the experiment, i.e., EHE, instead of the traditional class. The main limitation of this research is the lack of academic results linked to emotions, even though the motivation increases, as previously mentioned. From the results and detected limitations, future work is proposed to take advantage of the motivation improvement during these types of games, in which the students become involved in the subject, by re-scheduling the activity to the start of the term. Hence, these types of strategies would be recommended for the beginning of the course, as a reason for introducing students to the topic and contents. On the other hand, since the proposed activity is generic, focused on reviewing some concepts, we propose changing the main educational objective by focusing it on the learning of new concepts. The new objective not only would imply a support to understand already seen concepts, but also look at new ones, at the time that an active and autonomous attitude of the student is obtained. This type of activity would replace the classic classroom teaching method at times.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, A.M.-G. and O.B.-G..; theoretical background, L.S.-L. and A.M.-G.; methodology, A.M.-G. and O.B.-G.; validation, R.M.D.; formal analysis, R.M.D.; investigation, A.M.-G. and O.B.-G.; data curation, R.M.D.; writing—original draft preparation, all authors; writing—review and editing, L.S.-L. and R.M.D.; supervision, O.B.-G. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This work has been co-funded by the Madrid Regional Government, through the project e-Madrid-CM (P2018/TCS-4307). The e-Madrid-CM project is also co-financed by the Structural Funds (FSE and FEDER).

**Institutional Review Board Statement:** Not applicable.

**Informed Consent Statement:** Not applicable.

**Data Availability Statement:** Not applicable.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.

#### **References**


## *Article* **Using a Cooperative Educational Game to Promote Pro-Environmental Engagement in Future Teachers**

**Mercedes Vázquez-Vílchez \*, Dalia Garrido-Rosales, Beatriz Pérez-Fernández and Alicia Fernández-Oliveras**

Departamento de Didáctica de las Ciencias Experimentales, Universidad de Granada, 18071 Granada, Spain; daliagarrido@correo.ugr.es (D.G.-R.); beatrix22@correo.ugr.es (B.P.-F.); alilia@ugr.es (A.F.-O.) **\*** Correspondence: mmvazquez@ugr.es

**Abstract:** This paper explores the value of cooperative games in enhancing knowledge and generating pro-environmental engagement in students. For this, an educational board game related to global change was developed, validated, and subsequently evaluated using future primary school teachers. The board game was validated and evaluated in two phases. Phase I (validation phase): students pursuing a Master's Degree in Secondary Education evaluated different aspects of the game, providing feedback that improved the game design and playing rules. Phase II (implementation–evaluation phase): the game was implemented using students of the Primary Education Degree, whose learning performance and engagement was assessed through a qualitative survey. These participants were considered potential users of the board game. The users' experience was explored using a theoretical framework for pro-environmental engagement through playing the game. The findings demonstrate that the cooperative game proposed fomented a feeling of personal responsibility for the environment in the users. It also fostered cognitive, emotional, and behavioural engagement in the players. The results agree with the attributes present in the framework of engagement with respect to climate-change-related issues using gaming. Game-based learning can be used as a tool for enhancing global change knowledge and promoting pro-environmental engagement while bolstering Education for Sustainability (EfS) capacity in future primary-school teachers.

**Keywords:** game-based learning; board games; global change; environmental engagement; teacher training; higher education; Education for sustainabieducation for sustainabilitylity

#### **1. Introduction**

Programmes such as the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development have made global calls to teach about the global environmental crisis, in order to encourage changes in knowledge, values, and attitudes with the vision of building a more sustainable and fairer society for all. These calls, increasingly reflected in formal and non-formal education settings, are expressed in international assessments of science education [1]. However, although the public has been progressively becoming aware of environmental issues, a discrepancy persists between the convictions expressed and the behaviour of large segments of society [2]. Thus, an awareness of an environmental problem is needed to motivate pro-environmental action, which may be strengthened by understanding the link between an individual's actions and subsequent environmental decline [3]. According to Bamberg [4] an important precursor of pro-environmental action is a feeling of personal responsibility for the environment—which also involves being aware of how one's actions negatively impact nature. Such personal environmental norms have been shown to predict pro-environmental behavior, such as choosing sustainable modes of travel [5] and preserving marine environments [6]. In this sense, Education for Sustainability (EfS) should encourage the feeling of personal responsibility to initiate pro-environmental behaviour. Therefore, EfS needs to be established as a key purpose of scholarly education but ensuring good teacher training in EfS is a major challenge [7–9].

**Citation:** Vázquez-Vílchez, M.; Garrido-Rosales, D.; Pérez-Fernández, B.; Fernández-Oliveras, A. Using a Cooperative Educational Game to Promote Pro-Environmental Engagement in Future Teachers. *Educ. Sci.* **2021**, *11*, 691. https://doi.org/ 10.3390/educsci11110691

Academic Editors: José Carlos Piñero Charlo, María Teresa Costado Dios, Enrique Carmona Medeiro and Fernando Lloret

Received: 23 August 2021 Accepted: 24 October 2021 Published: 29 October 2021

**Publisher's Note:** MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

**Copyright:** © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).

This paper explores the role of game-based learning in expanding knowledge and fostering pro-environmental engagement. To this end, an educational board game based on global change (GC) was developed and validated. GC is a complex term still widely confused with climate change. GC refers to the ensemble of environmental changes provoked by human activities, especially changes in the functioning of the Earth's systems. GC includes at least five components: atmospheric composition, soil use, climate, biochemical cycles, and biodiversity. These components are interconnected in such a way that, if one of them is altered, the characteristics of the others will also change [10]. Our study is in line with other authors who propose educational games and gamification for climate-change engagement [11], but no study available has treated climate change as a part of GC, which is key in EfS, since climate-change is only one factor to take into account in order to promote pro-environmental engagement. We implemented the game using students of the Primary Education Degree, while learning performance and engagement were evaluated through a qualitative survey. This paper provides an evidence-based case study that offers insight into the learning and experiences of students after playing an environmental game, which demonstrably enhanced engagement in the future primary teachers. This approach may be of use to others in the sustainability community considering cooperative game-based learning and teaching opportunities.

#### **2. Game-Based Learning and Engagement**

#### *2.1. Game-Based Learning Approach*

The game-based learning approach has been largely recognized as one of the best active educational approaches [12,13]. It is a type of gameplay with learning outcomes, making it distinct from entertainment-oriented formulas. Game-based learning is designed and developed for the primary purpose of educating or training students [14,15].

Extensive research involving game-based learning provides the empirical evidence that supports diverse cognitive benefits [16–18] accompanied by affective and motivational changes [19,20]; however, some studies qualify this view and suggest that while games have value within teaching and learning, their effectiveness in improving student performance is influenced by the design of the game and the specific instructional purpose [21]. Wouters et al. [22] acknowledged that game-based learning interventions are often short, consisting of only one session and thus limiting their possible learning impact.

Although more research is required to establish the long-term outcomes of games on student achievement and deeper learning [23], there is evidence to suggest that playing games can improve student learning and engagement [24]. Core traits within games offer opportunities to change behaviours and develop learning [25]. These include uncertainty, i.e., the inability to fully predict or control processes related to outcomes, and non-linearity, i.e., the interaction among a game's elements that can generate different outcomes. Games could provide opportunities to change behaviours, develop ideas, and encourage collaboration within the safe environment of a game [24,26], thus, the game can enhance students' experiences and engagement through peer-to-peer learning, collaboration, negotiation, and problem solving [27]. Moreover, game-based learning is a didactic strategy that facilitates experiential learning, given that the users attempt to reproduce a context as close to reality as possible [24]. Experiential learning seeks to engage students through education and entertainment, where students develop critical thinking skills and generate an emotional response. Some authors have highlighted the capability of game-based learning to engage and motivate students who no longer find traditional learning and teaching styles appealing [24–26]. Cooper et al. [28] suggests this is due to games' ability to harness collaborative problem-solving skills. Therefore, student engagement and motivation, so closely related in the learning process, are crucial advantages of game-based learning over traditional instruction, thus, it is only natural that researchers frequently focus on these aspects as a key aspect of instructional games [25,26].

#### *2.2. Engagement and Motivation*

The concept of engagement has many connotations. One such example of this is player engagement, which is related to the experience of playing games and linked to a multitude of other concepts such as flow [29], immersion [30] and motivation [31]. On the other hand, the student engagement concept has a multifaceted nature and is defined in three subdomains (behavioral, emotional and cognitive engagement). Behavioral engagement encompasses student participation; it includes involvement in activities and is significant in the achievement of learning outcomes [32,33]. Emotional engagement covers both positive and negative reactions to instructors, classmates, and schools, and it is thought to build connections with others and reflect the willingness of students to complete tasks [31,34]. Finally, cognitive engagement incorporates student investment, and it influences the thoughtful efforts of students to understand complex knowledge and master difficult skills [35,36]. For this study, we have considered the concept of engagement as used in climate change research, specifically that proposed by Lorenzoni et al. [37], who defines engagement with climate change as the individual evaluation of and response to climate change which comprises cognitive, emotional and behavioural components. We have chosen this approach because it comes closest to the aim of our study, as it provides a framework for categorising those responses of our students that show a personal connection not only to climate change, but to other environmental issues included in GC.

Lorenzoni et al. [37] suggests that it is not enough for people to know about climate change, but that "they must also care about it, be motivated and able to act" to engage with climate change. Hence, the definition of engagement includes all three dimensions: cognitive, emotional and behavioural. Thus, in order to become more engaged with climatechange-related issues, in our case GC, players will: (a) think more about and possibly learn more about it (b) feel more personally involved, i.e., give more importance to the issue; and (c) make behavioural changes to express their concern.

The motivation to play is strongly related to motivation grounded in activity specific incentives [38]. In this way, the activities proposed in game-based learning can motivate students, increasing their learning outcomes and problem-solving skills [39]. Game-based learning can also develop both extrinsic and intrinsic motivation in students [40]. Intrinsic motivation is defined as the doing of an activity for its inherent satisfaction rather than for some separable consequence, while extrinsic motivation is incentivized with the acquisition of reinforcers [41]. Game-based learning can increase the student´s intrinsic motivation, for example, when they feel recognition from, and sense of belonging to, a group [42]. Games can also use different mechanics and dynamics, highlighting, for example, the points–badges–leaderboards triad [43] and enhancing extrinsic motivation, which in excess could have a negative impact on the intrinsic motivation of students [41]. In this sense, to keep users engaged is especially important to foment intrinsic motivations [44,45].

#### *2.3. Game-Based Learning for Sustainability*

The literature offers many examples of specific game-based learning studies on EfS [11,46–48]. These games address a wide range of learning goals, from increased knowledge to enhanced pro-environmental engagement [49,50], and involve the use of different formats (i.e., digital, board game, and hybrid).

Board games appear to be an excellent learning tool to use for EfS, usually being designed as social activities [11]. According to social constructivist theories, ideas are built through social interaction [51], which is an effective strategy in terms of EfS [52]. Moreover, the board game platform creates a small virtual society in which students can learn by trial and error and accumulate experiences in a virtual world. Based on the scenario around which the theme of a board game is designed, different events can be simulated. Moreover, board games are highly interactive. In these games, students can take the initiative to explore and exchange information with their peers, thus promoting student-centred learning. With board games, participants play face to face, engaging in human-to-human interactions (interactions among players) and human-to-board game

interactions (feedback provided to players by board game mechanisms). Students explore the world of the board game and its mechanisms as beginners and, through feedback and player interaction, gradually become familiar with the rules and value systems of the game [48,53,54].

In fact, there are numerous examples of board games that present several opportunities to explore multiple facets of sustainability. For instance, the *Keep Cool* game covers and integrates central biophysical, economic, and political aspects of climate change [52]. *Water Ark*, enhances participants' knowledge about water resources [53]. The theme of the *Crazy Water* board game simulates the water use habits of residents in their daily lives [54]. The *Enviropoly* game works with daily life behaviours, which have negative or positive effects on the environment, promoting environmental literacy [55]. The *Forage Rummy* game can be used to educate farmers in climate change [56]. The *Let's Save Energy*! game is focused on international and environmental cooperation against climate change [57] and, finally, in *Be Blessed in Taiwan* [46,47], sustainable development concepts are introduced into the play process. This board game addresses four related aspects: social development, economic growth, environmental protection, and animal survival. In this paper, we offer a new game based on GC, where its five components are equally addressed, presenting students with a global view of environmental issues, unlike the many climate change games we have identified in the literature [11].

Although sustainability games have begun to be implemented in educational settings, academia knows little about how gaming works with environmental topics, what its characteristics and actual performance are, or how much potential it has to foment awareness, engagement and behavioural change [11,58]. In this way, there are few theoretical frameworks that provide a comprehensive vision of which factors should be considered in games to promote pro-environmental behaviours.

Recently, Ouariachi et al. [59] provided a theoretical framework which indicates those game attributes that should be considered in order to motivate people into action. These attributes are the following: (1) achievable; (2) challenging; (3) concrete; (4) credible; (5) efficacy enhancing; (6) experiential; (7) feedback oriented; (8) fun; (9) identity-driven; (10) levelling-up; (11) meaningful; (12) narrative-driven; (13) reward-driven; (14) simulating and (15) social. This framework identifies which of these attributes prompt deep engagement, representing those that simultaneously produce cognitive, emotional and behavioural engagement [37]. According to these authors, pro-environmental engagement through games is achieved by experiential learning and with powerful narratives. The information should be concrete and credible to connect with people's experience and values. An engaging experience should also be fun with challenges that include achievable goals. When these factors are associated with social interactions and peer pressure, there is more chance that behavioural change will occur.

#### **3. The Board Game:** *A Planet Near the Abyss*

As a proposal devoted to EfS, we designed and manufactured a board game intended to enhance undergraduate students' knowledge and understanding of GC and encourage pro-environmental student engagement [60]. In order to motivate people into action, the attributes proposed by Ouariachi et al. [59] were considered in the game design.

A cooperative board game design was used because we intended to enhance social interaction, because social elements in games constitute a major category for fostering affective and behavioural engagement [11]. Such collaborative mechanics should enable the occurrence of changes in attitude towards sustainability or the environment [61]. In addition, some studies have indicated that multiplayer role-plays seem to enable empowerment regarding environmental issues [62] and increase awareness of collaboration [63].

Many works propose experiential learning as a good model for EfS [59,64], therefore, *experiential learning* was pursued in the game design by affording hands-on experiences in a simulated context, providing different levels of abstraction and focusing on the features

of GC, along with including moments for individual or group reflection. It goes without saying that we also sought to offer students an interesting and enjoyable experience.

The game proposed for GC education is called *A Planet Near the Abyss*, which was inspired by a commercial cooperative board game called *Forbidden Island* created by Matt Leacock and distributed by Devir Iberia and Gamewright®. Like *Forbidden Island*, our educational board game is designed for two to six players. Since it is a cooperative game, all the players comprise a team and if a member of the team loses, all the other members also lose and the game is over.

The *narrative-driven* approach is inspired by the *Forbidden Island* game, which may promote a deep student immersion in the game environment and thus increase their motivation [65]. The game involves 23 different ecosystems (Figure 1), some natural and others anthropic, each represented by a different tile. One side of the tile displays an image of the ecosystem, and the other side has an image of the same ecosystem that is affected by GC. The tiles that reflect the ecosystems affected by GC show shocking images for provoking *meaningful*, emotions, which could influence player motivation, attitudes and values [66,67]. The ecosystems were chosen for being currently affected by GC or for their vulnerability to be affected in the near future. Some examples of the natural ecosystems include coral reefs, mangrove forests, and Mediterranean forests. Additionally, we added anthropogenic ecosystems, such as London, Polynesia, and Norilsk. In these cases, both sides of the tiles are the same, because GC has already affected these ecosystems, and so it is not a prediction, as in the rest of the board tiles [68]. Players take turns moving their pieces around the board and movements on the board must be crosswise, never diagonal. A spaceship appears on the board and this is because the goal of the game is to rescue the four endangered animal species (African elephant, caribou, orangutan and Iberian lynx) within their corresponding ecosystems (savanna, tundra, jungle and Mediterranean forest), to travel to the space station on a rocket in order to safeguard these species, and to continue research on how to save the planet. In this way, the students would become the heroes that save the planet, with meaningful feelings such as *efficacy-enhancement* or confidence for an increasing sense of empowerment to act [11,59]. The purpose of our game is to create inspiring characters as a powerful strategy to achieve an emotional connection, since such characters can reflect the human aspects of GC. Therefore, the aim is to create *identity-driven* qualities that emerge when connections are made between the game and the personal experiences of the players.

The game has two packs of cards, one for conservation and one for impact. Each impact card explains how GC affects a given ecosystem and implies that the ecosystem tile has to be turned around towards the side affected by the GC. The conservation cards consist of seven Species cards, four Habitat Protection cards, three Escaping by Spaceship cards, and five Ecologist cards (Figure 2). The Species cards allow players to save endangered species. The Habitat Protection cards allow ecosystem tiles to be restored by turning them to the side unaffected by GC. The Space Escape cards allow players to escape the planet once they have saved the four endangered animal species. The cards for the ecologists ask questions or pose challenges regarding the GC that the students must resolve by working together. The questions or challenges set out on these cards require reflective work from the students while enhancing their GC knowledge. In addition, there needs to be agreement on which player rescues which endangered species, depending on their position on the board. We have included 10 Ecologist cards: two cards for each component of GC. The Ecologist cards aim to improve understanding of environmental issues. These cards address issues such as the effect of anthropogenic factors on biodiversity conservation, biochemical cycles and their relation to ecological successions, air pollution, human-induced climate change, and overpopulation and its consequences (deforestation, fires and overexploitation). *Concrete and credible* information is integrated into the game mechanics through impact cards, avoiding extensive and complex analyses. It has been our objective to offer challenges with achievable goals, as proposed by Waddington and Fennewald [69]. These authors demonstrated that affective issues, including induced fatalism, can be provoked through

making challenges in games extremely difficult, which reduces student motivation and engagement. Challenges are designed for the consequences of decisions, and the actions taken in the game represent the feedback players receive and replicate in real life, so this feedback should be positive and encouraging [59]. Thus, the challenges in our game would be considered *feedback oriented*.

Over the course of the game, cards are drawn in each turn: two from the conservation pack and either three or one from the impact pack (if the players' answer to the Ecologists' card is correct). When the same impact card comes up twice during the game, the ecosystem tile is removed from the board and players lose mobility. If this happens on the ecosystem tiles where endangered species live, or on the spaceship tile, then the players lose the game. An endangered species can be saved if a player obtains four cards for that species and locates those cards in the ecosystem where the species lives or in adjacent tiles. The game has a risk marker, which shows the degree of harm caused by GC. The risk increases whenever a player receives a card for an ecologist. If the players reach the top of the risk marker and they have been unable to save all endangered species, they lose.

The game, *A Planet Near the Abyss*, has three levels: beginner, medium, and advanced. The different levels provide suitable changes to connect to the prior knowledge of young people and, hence, the game is *challenging* with different tasks that require effort to perform. Therefore, the students can become aware of the consequences that their actions have for our planet, and this can induce them to reflect on how our lifestyles can affect the environment. In addition, players would be able to replay the levels to practice their skills before moving on to the more difficult levels [70]. Levelling is also important for motivating behavioural change because people can feel safer and closer to their goal than they might have expected [71].

To facilitate the explanation of the instructions, we developed a video tutorial that places students in the game context and indicates the goal to achieve in order to win the game, as well as the steps required to be undertaken (https://youtu.be/Q6jnZXIEYTw, accessed on 26 October 2021).

**Figure 1.** *A Planet Near the Abyss* board game. The board, representing the planet Earth, is composed of 23 ecosystems affected by global change, each represented by a different tile.

**Figure 2.** Packs of cards of the game, *A Planet Near the Abyss*. (**A**) Impact cards explain how global change affects a given ecosystem; (**B**) Conservation cards: 7 Species cards, 4 Habitat Protection cards, 3 Escaping by Spaceship cards, and 5 Ecologist cards.

#### **4. Materials and Methods**

#### *4.1. Study Participants and Procedure*

The board game, *A Planet Near the Abyss*, previously designed by the Authors [60], was validated, implemented, and evaluated in two phases:


#### *4.2. Analysis of the Validation Phase*

After playing the educational game, the Master's students filled out a questionnaire that evaluated the usability of the game and analysed its communicative and educational elements through items with multiple answers and open questions.

The items for the evaluation of usability were chosen based on the questionnaire, "System Usability Scale" (SUS) [72], to evaluate usability and functionality. This questionnaire was made up of 4-scale Likert items valued from 1 to 4 (1 = "strongly disagree", 2 = "disagree", 3 = "agree" and 4 = "strongly agree"), and two open questions to gather opinions on how to improve the usability and strengths of the game. An even number of scales in the Likert questionnaire was chosen in order to avoid unnecessary neutral responses [73,74].

As a means of evaluating the communicative and educational aspects of the game, the dimension proposed by [75] was adapted, selecting the criteria that fit our game. Three dimensions were evaluated: 6 items were prepared to evaluate the Gameplay dimension (number of players, type of game, duration, dynamic, objective and entertaining); 3 items concerned the Contents dimension (relevant, story and terminology); and 2 other items served to assess the Educational dimension (competence development and skills). The items were valued according to the Likert scale (from 1 "strongly disagree" to 4 "strongly agree") and at the end of each aspect an open question was asked to gather proposals for improvement. A general rating scale from 1–10 was used for a question to determine the overall assessment of the game. Another question asked whether the participants would use the game as teaching material in their classes, with a possible answer between three options, "Yes", "No", and "Maybe", and there was a final open question to establish their general opinion of the game.

#### *4.3. Analysis of the Implementation–Evaluation Phase*

The authors used a short qualitative survey to explore the learning performance and student engagement from students of the Bachelor's Degree in Primary Education after playing a GC game. Thematic analysis [76,77] was used on data collected through open questions. Examples of students´ answers were translated from Spanish to English. These answers, containing information vital to this research project, are compiled in the Results section. Reliability of the data analysis was assessed twice according to procedure, i.e., following the pilot and the main phase of the analysis [77]. For the main phase, the intra-dimension reliability was 80%, where the students' answers were coded at two points in time.

The learning performance about GC was evaluated through two pre-test and post-test open questions:

Q1. "What is GC and what consequences does it have?"

Q2. "Do you think that something you do affects GC? If so, indicate what."

The data compiled in the first question were structured into main categories or dimensions, most of which were based on preconceived subjects related to existing knowledge concerning GC. In this sense, we categorized the students' answers according to the definition of GC, as a "set of environmental changes affected by human activity, with particular reference to changes in the processes that determine the functioning of the Earth system " [10] (p.23), and we also used their five components as categories. Therefore, the students' ideas were categorized and quantified in relation to GC: (1) environmental changes; (2) human activity; (3) Earth system disturbance; (4) changes in atmospheric composition; (5) climate change; (6) changes in biogeochemical cycles; (7) land-use changes; and (8) biodiversity changes, in addition to some categories identified from the data, such as (9) positive changes and (10) other changes (Figure 3). Each student response was classified into different categories and the percentages of the categories were calculated, taking into account the number of students (128).

**Figure 3.** Scheme used to determine categories in the question: What is global change and what consequences does it have? Source: adapted from Duarte et al. [10].

In the second question, ideas concerning the activities that contribute to the GC were classified into categories and items, where the categories were inferred from the data, and finally quantified taking into account the number of students (128). According to the students' answers, the categories established based on the responses to this question involved: (1) plastic use; (2) paper use; (3) car use; (4) non-renewable energies; (5) gas production; (6) water waste; (7) throw-away items; (8) meat consumption; (9) failure to recycle; (10) forest burning; (11) natural-resource exploitation; (12) textile use; and (13) deforestation.

In order to explore student engagement, after finishing the game, the students answered one open-ended question regarding their general opinion of its value. This question was deliberately open-ended to encourage the students to reflect on both what was learned and the learning process itself. The answers from the students regarding the quality of their learning experience allowed for the determination of the indicators of engagement [11,78]. This survey asked:

Q3. What was your experience of playing the *A Planet Near the Abyss* game?

Initially, students' comments on the game played for both learning and entertainment were used to explore the students' learning experiences. For this analysis, we used core words related to learning (e.g., "educational", "insightful" and "informative") and entertainment (e.g., "fun", "enjoyable").

To assess the strength of the student engagement, we used the dimensions of engagement framework, based on Lorenzoni et al. [37], for climate change. In our case, we related these dimensions to GC. The players' feedback that indicated their reaction to or feeling towards the game, was categorized as "cognitive involvement", "emotional involvement" or "behavioural involvement", which were taken to reflect engagement, as suggested by Lorenzoni et al. [37]. Based on these authors, we defined these categories as:


Finally, the game performance was established against the framework of engagement regarding climate-change-related issues through serious gaming [59]. The framework encompasses 15 main attributes that would make the most impact on user engagement at the cognitive, emotional, and behavioural levels. The results of the students' learning experience were compared with these attributes, establishing the engagement value of the game.

#### **5. Results**

#### *5.1. Validation Phase*

The answers of the questionnaires filled out by the future secondary teachers (Figure 4) were analysed in a quantitative manner and some statistical parameters (mean and variance) were calculated. Figure 4 shows that the future teachers encountered difficulties in understanding the instructions and had to return to them or ask for help while playing. Despite this, they claimed that playing the game was easy. In general, the gameplay was evaluated positively. These evaluators agreed that the number of players, the type of game, the duration of the game, and its purpose were adequate, while the dynamics of the game were assessed as inappropriate due to the disagreement of the participants over some of the rules. The majority considered the game entertaining and valued the contents of the game very positively. According to these future teachers, the game develops key competencies, as well as skills related to environmental issues. The overall assessment mean of the game was six and the majority of the future teachers declared that maybe they would use this resource.

After analysing the results of the questionnaires and taking into account the opinions of the evaluators and their proposals, we made certain changes in the game to improve the instructions and its dynamics.

#### *5.2. Users' Learning Performance*

Figure 5 lists the categories and their frequencies used in the analysis in the question, Q1: "What is GC and what consequences does it have?". In the pre-test, most students (50%) considered causes of GC to be induced by humans through pollution, the destruction of the ozone layer, and the greenhouse effect, leading to global warming. In this sense, the answers obtained expressed that GC is the transformation the planet is undergoing due to the actions of human beings. Its consequences are the destruction of the ozone layer, temperature changes, the greenhouse effect, and the melting of the poles (Participant 66).

**Figure 5.** Scheme used to determine categories in the question: What is global change and what consequences does it have? Examples are marked by a "+" and they are related to the participant number (P). The category frequencies in pre-test (in *italics*) and post-test (in bold), are respectively shown in terms of percentage. Source: adapted from Duarte et al. [10].

Many students (46%) confused GC with climate change or were only able to establish a relationship with this factor. Mostly, the consequences they named were the thawing of the poles and the increase in Earth's temperature. Examples of these answers indicated that GC is the process by which weather changes abruptly, for example, when in the winter season we might find very high temperatures. The consequences are usually droughts, insufficient rain or excess rain, tidal waves, and floods (Participant 108).

A few students (4%) confused GC with globalization and/or described it as a change that has negative and positive consequences, such as technological advances. In this way, some students thought that GC encompasses all those changes that occur on the planet due to human intervention. As far as the consequences are concerned, students were able to draw both positive and negative conclusions. Negative: deterioration of the land and the atmosphere or positive: improvement of quality of life (Participant 12).

After playing, some participants (16%) still defined GC as climate change and did not relate it to the other factors. However, there was an increase in student users of the game (63%) who added human activity to their definition, recognizing that it is an environmental change related to the loss of biodiversity and/or the destruction of ecosystems (47%). Some students responded that GC is the actions that human beings perform, and which affect the entire world. They thought that these included consequences such as the disappearance of some species or ecosystems (Participant 34).

The students who did not know how to define GC or who defined it as something positive before using the game, afterwards gained a clear idea that the consequences of this change are negative. Changes in biogeochemical cycles and land use were practically ignored by the students, while they cited changes in atmospheric composition and climate change with a similar frequency in the pre and post-test phases.

Table 1 shows the frequencies of the categories and items determined from the answers to the question, Q2: "Do you think that something you do affects GC? If yes, indicate what." Some students appeared to find it difficult to recognize that their daily activities could affect GC while others instead described actions in favour of the environment such as recycling or saving water. In the pre-test, some students (54%) recognized that they used the car when they could use public transportation or other means that do not pollute and/or they did not recycle (32%). After playing the game, students recognized that some of their daily activities increased GC, mainly the use of a car (68%), or failure to recycle (42%); however, they cited the use of non-renewable energy and the use of plastics

with similar a frequency in the pre-test and post-test. Only the water waste category decreased significantly after the game. To a lesser extent, a few students mentioned other potentially harmful personal actions, such as meat consumption or textile use and cited general problems such as burning forests.

**Table 1.** Frequencies of the categories or items determined in the question: Do you think that something you do has to do with Global Change? If yes, indicate what".


#### *5.3. User Experience of Playing and Engagement*

The participants' responses indicated that the majority of the student users of the game considered, *A Planet Near the Abyss,* both educational and entertaining. In fact, the feedback of 95% of the students revealed engagement in learning and 68% thought that the game was entertaining. The students commented that they learned very important things about the Earth and became aware of the danger that our actions have for our planet through the game in a fun and interesting way (Participant 10).

In their responses, many students (55%) used educational as well as entertaining core words (fun, entertaining, dynamic, educative, didactic, educational). The students acknowledged that the game is quite good, being both educational and entertaining, so that they were playing and learning at the same time (Participant 90).

The results in this research indicate that a majority of the students (66%) felt that their thinking was stimulated during playing the game. Student responses suggest that through this game, the students were engaged cognitively with game-based learning. The participants recognized that the game helped them to understand the importance of protecting the ecosystems of our planet to save species. They also commented that the game is very ingenious and original, and full of meaning and information (Participant 67).

Emotional responses were detected in 34% of the students using the game, indicating that a significant percentage of the students were emotionally engaged. The students indicated that the game raised awareness of damaged ecosystems because the affected board cards show how damage makes the world ugly and that it opened their eyes to the seriousness of the issue (Participant 100).

A few students (24%) showed behavioural engagement. They recognized that the need for collaboration between all players in order to save the planet in the game, represents a parallel to reality since that is what we are trying to achieve in our real world (Participant 34).

#### **6. Discussion**

The research findings were further assessed against a framework of climate change engagement through serious games [59], relating the students' answers to established attributes proven to prompt deep engagement (Figure 6).

In the first instance, our game poses *achievable challenges*. The challenges presented to players in our game, as well as the behavioural change promoted in the messages, are within reach of the players, as proposed by Waddington and Fennewald [69]. The results after the game was finished indicated that the players performed well during the game and that they felt good after resolving difficult tasks, thereby attaining the goal of the game. Therefore, the game is *challenging*. They commented that the game foments deep learning about GC. In fact, after playing, most students added human activity to their definition of GC. They recognized that it is an environmental change and that it began partly as a consequence of the loss of biodiversity and/or the destruction of ecosystems.

In terms of behaviour, our game encourages behaviour-specific changes that are possible and easy to undertake in the real world. The players remarked that collaboration, of the type this game inculcates, is a critical issue for mitigating GC. In this sense, studies have also shown that one of the greatest barriers to pro-environmental behaviour is a sense that individual efforts are insufficient to combat environmental crises such as climate change [79]. Consequently, some social movements are maturing, for example, the FridaysForFuture movement (FFF), where efforts are focused on promoting social change by going beyond the individual toward a collective agency [80], which is in accordance with this game's objective of cooperation.

**Figure 6.** Students' experiences playing the game, *A Planet Near the Abyss,* mapped against a framework of climate change engagement through serious games. Source: adapted from Ouariachi et al. [59].

Moreover, after playing, our students expressed greater awareness about the environmental crisis; indicated also by an increase of awareness about the daily activities that they recognized as contributing to GC. Hence, their feelings of personal responsibility for the environment increased after playing, implying potential future pro-environmental behaviours. This result is consistent with those reported, for example, by Schroth et al. [81] which showed that through game, users increase their local responsibility for climate change issues.

The problem of GC can frequently leave people feeling powerless. The answers from the student users indicated that after playing they felt that we all have a certain power to save species and ecosystems through collaboration. Therefore, the game proved to be *efficacy enhancing* and promoted a feeling of empowerment.

People may often regard GC as an invisible problem, so to experience the problem is the best way to address it. The game presented here is based on experiential learning, since the *narrative-driven* aspect and design of the game show GC consequences through shocking images of different ecosystems which players must save before those habitats disappear.

Our game includes *concrete* and *credible* challenges, which are connected to the real life of students. Users remarked that the images show how the world could be after GC. They described this world as an unpleasant place, showing emotional pathways triggered by the game, therefore, according to the students, the game presents trustworthy information. In addition, the *A Planet Near the Abyss* game has a *levelling-up* quality by presenting different levels of difficulty (low, intermediate and advanced).

The consequences of decisions and actions taken in the game simulate the feedback that players receive and replicate in real life, and this feedback should be positive and encouraging [59]. Thus, the game's challenges are *feedback oriented*. The students enjoyed resolving the game challenges and they recognized that the game helped raise their awareness of how the actions of individuals can have an impact on ecosystems and their species.

Educational games, to be effective, should involve some degree of *entertainment and fun* [82]. Many students in our research showed in their answers that our educational game was fun and entertaining.

The images and the messages in games can provoke fear and concern, and these feelings need to be counterbalanced with hopeful feelings. Therefore, games can provoke *meaningful* emotions about GC. Moreover, games should appeal to players' identities—not only to the people they are right now, but also to the people they would like to become [71]. In this sense, many students stated that they enjoyed saving the endangered species, because they felt as though they were acting like heroes and saving the planet. Thus, our game can trigger emotional responses in its players.

The *social element* is present in our game in its cooperative character. Many students enjoyed the cooperative nature of the game instead of competitive strategies. In this sense, feeling the recognition of and gaining a sense of belonging to a group, could be facilitated by the cooperative character of the game, allowing for the development of intrinsic motivations [42].

The attributes present in our game, such as its being achievable, feedback oriented, meaningful, and narrative driven can be seen as valuable for increasing the potential to engage participants at the cognitive, emotional, and behavioural levels simultaneously (Figure 6), in agreement with Ouariachi et al. [59]. Moreover, these authors have indicated that the more attributes are involved in the design of a game, the stronger physical and mental connections it builds with participants, and the greater the potential will be to influence human behaviour.

#### **7. Conclusions**

Users' learning outcomes demonstrated that our game improved the understanding of the consequence of human activity, such as biodiversity loss and ecosystem destruction. In addition, the findings indicate that playing can promote a sense of personal responsibility for the environment. In this sense, the students in their responses indicated a pronounced increase in this feeling of responsibility, particularly in relation to car use and recycling, indicating potential pro-environmental behaviour.

Players developed strong emotional, cognitive, and behavioural engagement. The game prompted emotional engagement, where a balance between positive and negative sentiments promoted a feeling of empowerment. The cognitive engagement that was generated sharpened the students' awareness of human activity as a major driver of GC. Behavioural engagement was also fomented, since cooperation, one characteristic of the board game, was recognized as key to mitigate GC, leading to a behavioural change in the participants.

Our game presents numerous attributes related to the engagement framework proposed by Ouariachi et al. [59]. These attributes are achievable, concrete, credible, challenging, fun, meaningful, social, efficacy enhancing, narrative-driven, feedback oriented, and identity-driven, offering experiential learning in a levelling-up context. These attributes are related to developing engagement at the cognitive, emotional, and behavioural levels. Therefore, the proposed game has a strong potential to influence human behaviour. Thus, our results reaffirm the value of games for educators.

Regarding the limitations of this work, we recognize that it is a small-scale study conducted over a short period. Therefore, a long-term experiment would be helpful to compile follow-up data needed to assess the impact of behavioural shifts over time [11]. More time to play in combination with greater exposure to the board-game context could also have multiplied the learning impact [22], given primarily that a key goal of our game is to promote the understanding of a complex phenomenon comprising GC causes, impacts, and possible actions. Another limitation involves the low frequency of the answers of the students regarding "water waste", "meat consumption" and "textile use" and some GC components (e.g., biogeochemical cycles changes and land use changes). This low incidence rate could be related to the small number of challenges related to these issues within the game, constituting a weakness in its design.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, M.V.-V., D.G.-R., B.P.-F. and A.F.-O.; Data curation, M.V.-V. and D.G.-R.; Formal analysis, M.V.-V., D.G.-R. and A.F.-O.; Methodology, M.V.-V. and A.F.-O.; Resources, M.V.-V. and A.F.-O.; Supervision, M.V.-V. and A.F.-O.; Visualization, M.V.-V. and A.F.-O.; Writing—original draft, M.V.-V., D.G.-R., B.P.-F. and A.F.-O.; Writing—review & editing, M.V.-V. and A.F.-O. Project administration, M.V.-V. and A.F.-O. Funding acquisition, M.V.-V. and A.F.-O. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research was funded by University of Granada, grant numbers PPJI2018-06, PID 18-363 and PBID-19-67, and Junta de Andalucía (Spain), research group HUM-613.

**Institutional Review Board Statement:** The study was conducted according to the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki.

**Informed Consent Statement:** Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study.

**Data Availability Statement:** The data presented in this study are available on request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available due to privacy.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.

#### **References**


## *Article* **How to Run Your Own Online Business: A Gamification Experience in ESL**

**Mª Ángeles Hernández-Prados \*, Mª Luisa Belmonte and Juan Carlos Manzanares-Ruiz**

Deptartment Teoría e Historia de la Educación, Universidad de Murcia, 30100 Murcia, Spain; marialuisa.belmonte@um.es (M.L.B.); juancarlos.manzanaresr@um.es (J.C.M.-R.) **\*** Correspondence: mangeles@um.es

**Abstract:** Notwithstanding the importance and relevance of gamification as a topical methodology in education, and after a literature review, there are just a few studies using role-playing games. In order to motivate and facilitate English as second language (ESL) learning of first year of Bachillerato (year 12) students at a public high school in the Region of Murcia (Spain) and following an action research methodology, we design, implement and evaluate a role-playing game, which consists of the creation and management of a company, The Tik Tok School. The results confirm that students felt more comfortable speaking in English because they were more motivated. They also state that during the experience they were more focused on learning rather than winning the game and that they prefer a gamification approach over traditional settings. Furthermore, they have been participating constantly using more English than Spanish. After the data analysis, we conclude that this methodology positively impacts motivation and the acquisition of a second language.

**Keywords:** role-playing games; gamification; second language instruction

#### **1. Introduction**

Education is important for the development of societies. Therefore, there is a constant search to improve it, in which innovative education plays a crucial role [1], as it involves the implementation of other ways of completing the educational task that contribute to enhancing the behaviors of individuals, organizations and economies. Nowadays, most teachers have opted for innovative education to transform and upgrade educational practice, although there are still many that feel more comfortable with traditional teachercentered methods. Gamification is one of the most significant methodologies within innovative education [2–7], maybe due to the many advantages that it is said to have. It is a groundbreaking methodology that is here to stay, as many others have in the past.

To avoid the usual confusion regarding gamification and some associated terms, some definitions are commonly used. Deterding et al. [8] (p. 1) understood gamification as "the use of game design elements in non-game contexts", in this case, the educational field in order to motivate and engage people [6]. It is a process that contributes to "making activities more game-like" [9] (p. 266), applying the characteristics and benefits of games to realworld processes and problems [7]. Gamification is based on game mechanics, aesthetics and reasoning to motivate and promote learning [10], and the main difference between ludification and gamification is that the former prioritizes the recreational aspect [11], whereas the latter matches the educational curriculum with skills students will need in their lives [12], focusing on competences. For the purposes of this study, gamification is understood as an unbeatable opportunity to generate active learning environments in which students learn curricular content in a relaxed, collaborative, dynamic and experiential environment.

Within the most common elements that make a gamified experience, some stand out: avatars, badges, boards, prizes and stories [5,13]. Visual support can also be used, especially at the beginning of the gamification, to engage the students [14]. Considering the literature review conducted by Dehghanzadeh et al. [15], the most used elements are feedback,

**Citation:** Hernández-Prados, M.Á.; Belmonte, M.L.; Manzanares-Ruiz, J.C. How to Run Your Own Online Business: A Gamification Experience in ESL. *Educ. Sci.* **2021**, *11*, 697. https://doi.org/10.3390/ educsci11110697

Academic Editors: José Carlos Piñero Charlo, María Teresa Costado Dios, Enrique Carmona Medeiro and Fernando Lloret

Received: 20 August 2021 Accepted: 28 October 2021 Published: 31 October 2021

**Publisher's Note:** MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

**Copyright:** © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).

challenges, points and rewards. The latter is achieved by winning experience points when you master some activity or achieve a milestone [16]. Furthermore, gamified curricular design involves three main elements: abstraction (transform real-world scenarios into a series of challenges), mechanics, and interfaces, which are designed to invite continuous participation [16].

The growing research on gamification has led to the proliferation of gamified educational experiences. Unfortunately, only a few have been evaluated. In fact, there is very little literature on the development and assessment of innovative educational programs [8], so that the debate on the effectiveness and improvements attributed to gamification continue to be open. The relevance of this research is the evaluations that students make of a role-playing gamification experience. The following questions can be answered: To what extent does this innovation promote the motivation and attention of students? Does it really improve learning and academic performance? To what extent does it affect the acquisition and implementation of competencies? Additionally, more specifically in relation to ESL, how does gamification contribute to the improvement of linguistic competence? In this study, students had to create a company from scratch, deciding, in the so-called team meetings, how they are going to run the business, pay their taxes and the best way to advertise themselves. The main objective of the role-playing is learning to become successful Tiktokers, which is why it is named the Tik Tok School. Through this experience, we intend to work on the acquisition of skills focused on economic management, entrepreneurship, communication processes, negotiation and decision making, among others.

There are different types of gamification in the educational field [17]. Regarding the contents, there are two subtypes: the structural one, in which the contents do not vary, but some gamified elements are added, and the content one, in which gamification is applied to both the contents and the structure, to have a game-like appearance, but we can also classify gamification according to whether it is a punctual action or the complete syllabus of a course [2]. From this point of view, the experience carried out is a punctual action in the syllabus of the English course that fits the second of the described modalities.

Precisely, making a new learning environment is one of the multiple challenges that teachers face. Furthermore, once the multiple benefits attributed to gamification are recognized, the question to be asked is: could these benefits be applied in ESL? More specifically, the following research problem was posed: what effects, achievements and difficulties arise from the application of role-playing games in ESL? As we detail throughout this paper, innovative methodologies in education, and more specifically gamification, are increasingly relevant as a method to help secondary school students improve their English skills [3], such as in a role-playing experience using puppets, with results showing that students improved their oral skills such as pronunciation and fluency [18]. Considering this context, this study has a twofold objective. On the one hand, it aims to provide a gamified intervention program, which increases the motivation with which students perceive the ESL class. On the other hand, it analyzes the students' perceptions, within the context of ESL and after carrying out such an intervention, about their proficiency levels, role-playing games, educational gamification and English use during the game.

Specifically, we started from a state of the art of gamification as a methodological resource in the ESL classroom, then moved on to the design, implementation and evaluation of an educational experience based on a role-playing game in which a group of first-year Bachillerato students (Year 12) had to create their own company, facing some difficulties during the process.

#### **2. Theoretical Framework**

#### *2.1. Literature Review: Gamificación in English as Second Language*

Since Wittgenstein adapted many board games for teaching English, particularly card games, and coined the concept of language games [19], the literature about this topic has evolved considerably; in fact, there are several gamification experiences related to language learning. More specifically, Dehganzadeh and Dehganzadeh [20] identify English as the language in which gamification is most used, mainly to teach vocabulary and, to a lesser extent, grammar.

If we want gamification to be increasingly used when teaching English, we must understand how it is currently being used and design strategies to help teachers implement it. In the study conducted by Singh et al. [21], several ESL experiences are analyzed, and they conclude that new technologies provide teachers with sufficient resources to gamify curricular content. Likewise, students showed more willingness to use mobile applications to learn languages in the future and positively valued the interaction possibilities [22].

Within gamification studies, the use of online quiz-type tools such as Quizzizz or Kahoot! stands out. The main positive aspects highlighted by Jiménez-Sánchez and Gargallo [23] are that they make classes more fun and have a competitive factor. However, role-playing games do not usually use external applications but rely on the creation of a gamified game environment.

In another ESL experience focused on traditional African stories called Ubuntu, students were introduced to different social contexts, approaching other cultures and creating their narratives while expanding their lexical knowledge and understanding better the components of a story. Furthermore, it fostered creativity and critical thinking [24]. Similarly, Lam et al. [25] developed critical thinking and argumentative writing in high-school students through gamification. They conclude that is a more effective method than teacherled direct instruction as it promotes writing longer, more creative and critical texts with the appropriate argumentative and structural components. Moreover, the subsequent on-line discussion allows students to read and reply to their peers' contributions, favoring interaction and feedback.

On the one hand, other investigations analyze the effect of role-playing games on learning English vocabulary, such as the one led by Fahim and Sabah [26]. They had similar results as before: students valued gamification positively and performed better than the control group. Another experience conducted by Girardelli [3] proved that when using gamification and role-playing games, trying to imitate a famous American TV show, students gained confidence when making short interventions in English and were more aware of the importance of organizing their speech and of non-verbal communication. On the other hand, Yen et al. [27] designed a mobile application focused on learning English vocabulary. It showed that students increased the time they spent using English and their proficiency level compared to the control group.

#### *2.2. The Use of Role-Playing Games in Education*

Of the different gamification approaches, this paper focuses on role-playing games. In 1974, *Dungeons and Dragons* was published, considered the world's first role-playing game, and it defined many of the characteristics and canons still in use. It established that imagination should be used and emphasized the need to perform a role [28]. A role-playing game could be defined as a shared fiction that develops some type of narrative with no predefined script in which each player assumes a specific role and acts consequently [29,30]. This is the main difference with another gamification modality: simulation. For this reason, due to the choices made by the players there will be no two similar role-playing games, even if they are based on the same story. Furthermore, during the game, the characters will develop and obtain new skills [31]. Finally, Mackay [32] adds the idea that a role-playing game must be "episodic", that is, it has to be carried out in several sessions, not just in one.

A role-playing game is a tool that will allow teachers to introduce real life-like activities with which students can understand more deeply a topic. For example, in the study of Gordon [33], students learnt the differences between American and Mexican cultures. Additionally, they acquired new vocabulary such as "pyramid, Aztecs or archaeological dig" (p. 713). Nuriyanti [34] states that to know a language means being able to use it in written and oral form to express your feelings or ideas, regardless of the context. This type of gamified methodologies, such as role-playing games, aim to increase students' level of confidence speaking English so that their oral expression can make quantitative and

qualitative improvements. Research conducted by Ayuningtias et al. [35], which compares teaching the same content in two ways, traditional memoristic learning and role-playing, showed that students participated more actively in their own learning in the latter. This ended up increasing their enthusiasm, motivation and, therefore, their oral expression skills. As these kinds of games are based on storytelling, they can help pass oral traditions and narratives through mix with popular culture to younger generations.

Like any methodology, gamification has supporters and a detractor who discuss its educational use in an open debate. The former argue that it is an active, student-centered methodology that faces learning with a different attitude and motivation that compensated for the generalized students' disinterest in the curriculum [11]. It is ideal for creating learning environments that actively involve, engage and motivate people and favor conflict resolution in the learning process [10]. It makes ESL classes more fun and, therefore, more motivating for students. The more motivated the students are, the more "effective" the activities carried out [36]. Among role playing games' most motivating characteristics, those that stand out are leaderboards, experience points and badges [4]. Moreover, this methodology promotes students' autonomy and improves leaning outcomes similarly to how the brain learns than traditional teaching [37].

Using role-playing games, students can contribute to blended assessments, seeking new solutions to the posed problems, justifying their opinions and assessing their peers [38]. Likewise, through gamification teachers can assess content in an integrative way [11], so that students feel that their efforts will be rewarded with different instruments not only with a single final evaluation. In another study carried out by Purnama and Nurdianingsih [39], the conclusion is that if we want to improve the oral expression of our students, teachers need to focus on higher order thinking skills and one way to do so is by through roleplaying games

Nevertheless, not everything surrounding gamification and role-playing games is positive. There are also some negative aspects. One of the most mentioned is the difficulty and effort involved in its design, as the teacher must prepare everything thoroughly so that the teaching–learning process achieves the proposed objectives [34]. Jassen [40] supports this idea by arguing that it is a demanding methodology; therefore, the teacher will need to prepare for each experience. In addition to a clear objective that provides content and meaning to the experience, specific training and a certain technological mastery are required to prepare, design and develop each session. These reasons may be the reason that its use is still not very widespread, despite all the potential benefits [12].

As we have presented, there have been several gamification studies in ESL classrooms, with each one using a different technique: mobile applications, video games, role-playing games, etc. Nevertheless, all of them have something in common, the positive assessment and more significant progress of the participants. In the studies presented, motivation, satisfaction, and grades in English increased more in the gamified learning group than in the control group. In fact, in a literature review by Dehghanzadeh et al. [15], the most repeated words about the gamification experience were enjoyable, interactive and exciting, not finding any negative evaluation. Moreover, a role-playing game experience using students studying for an engineering degree showed that the game itself was the most useful learning element during the course [41]. However, other variables such as classroom activities and demographics have not been considered to elaborate on such studies, so the conclusions are still at a preliminary stage [42]. As Ishaq et al. [43] found, mobile learning allows students to learn remotely and adapt their routines to their circumstances. Another app to consider is "Grammar Grabber", which makes it possible to evaluate the student's grammatical knowledge while receiving constant feedback. Moreover, it is possible to repeat incorrect answers [44].

Thanks to role-playing games, students can work on not only the main content but also on some transversal elements—for example, using French as a means of learning about the Enlightenment and the history of France [45].

#### **3. Materials and Methods**

This experimental study is based on an objectivist model, following a quantitative paradigm [46].

#### *3.1. Participants and Context*

The gamified experience was carried out in a public secondary school of Murcia (Spain), during the academic year 2020–2021.

The participants are part of a bilingual English–Spanish group in their 1st year of Bachillerato (year 12). As can be observed in Table 1, it is made up of 12 students (7 girls and 5 boys). None of them needed educational support. A large majority were 16 years old at the time of the research. It is noteworthy that none of them had lived in an Englishspeaking country and just a few have English-speaking relatives. In addition, most of them do not attend private English classes.


**Table 1.** Sample distribution of participating students.

The most significant aspect is undoubtedly the little contact that the students have with English outside the classroom. As we can see, none of them have lived in an Englishspeaking country and a large majority (75%) do not have English-speaking relatives. This is reinforced by the fact that only 41.7% of the students attend English private classes.

#### *3.2. Methods*

There are three stages in this investigation. The first one was a literature review about educational gamification. Subsequently, we designed and prepared all the materials used, following the previously studied guidelines. The second phase consisted of the implementation of the role-playing game and the gamified sessions with the students. Once the students had completed the experience, they assessed the experience through a questionnaire. Finally, we analyzed the data collected, considering the following parameters: gender, attendance to English private classes and having English-speaking relatives.

Implementing a gamified didactic unit implies reorganizing the teacher–student relationship, as the game has been designed for peer groups. In this sense, and considering the role-playing game format, formality and professionalism must be two of the main features that mark students' relationships among themselves and with the teacher, since they must remain as true as possible to their assigned characters. Therefore, the terminology and forms of politeness must be appropriate for the situation [47].

The role-playing game is designed to work on the vocabulary, grammar and expressions students have learned during theoretical sessions. It consisted of creating a company, the Tik Tok School, in which the students had to face the challenges of any entrepreneur. Such challenges were to find the first students, how to deal with a tax payment or, once the students arrived, how to run the school successfully.

Before a role-playing game starts, players must complete a character sheet with basic features and valuable information. This sheet must be updated as the game progresses [48]. In our study, we designed three character sheets (Figure 1), depending on the role each student chose. The first one is the CEO, who oversees decisions made at the company as well as makes sure it is profitable; the marketing person, who is in charge of advertising the company on social media; and the teacher, who is responsible for designing the classes. The organizational chart that the students made is in Figure 2. To help them internalize their characters and play their roles as partners in a company, they had to fill in some details such as weaknesses, strengths or objectives. Depending on the moment, the teacher may act as a representative of tax authorities or a television reporter, among others.

**Figure 2.** Organizational chart of the company.

On the one hand, a game handbook was designed with the company logo (Figure 3) and the objectives to be achieved in each team meeting, with space to take notes and

plan the strategies to be followed. We also used task cards that some students received during the experience, such as the letter from Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) (Figure 4), demanding a fine for non-payment.

**Figure 3.** Company logo.

**Figure 4.** HMRC Letter.

These cards have the function of giving more dynamism to the game, since some characters during the team meetings will have to carry out the secret mission that appears in each one.

On the other hand, gamified activities were integrated within the role-playing game itself. For example, to practice vocabulary related to economy and money, we designed an activity inspired by the board game Taboo. Moreover, we used an activity based on the Battleship game to practice the passive voice. Finally, we used classroom discussions to learn some structures to show agreement/disagreement, ask for someone's opinion, etc.

Likewise, we used two videos (Figure 5) so that students could get into the character more effectively during the game. The first one was used to introduce the experience and to help students choose their characters. We played the second video at the end of the experience. It was a news program showing that the students had won an innovation award. Finally, they had an informative note about the game posted on Google Classroom. It was a summary of how the experience worked.

**Figure 5.** Extract from the introduction video.

Among the ethical considerations that were considered, it should be noted that all participants received relevant information about the project in two different ways: information sheets and an oral presentation in the classroom. As it is an innovative methodology, they were informed that they all had to participate in the learning experience to acquire the didactic unit's curricular competencies. However, they could refuse to participate in the completion of the questionnaire that evaluated it. As the participants were minors, the families received an informed consent form emphasizing that participation in the data collection through the questionnaire was voluntary, and that all data collected were anonymous and kept in a safe place. The choice to participate was not conditioned or pressured, since the research team is external to the educational center, and it was made clear to the students that failure to complete the questionnaire would not affect the grade for the subject, since the subject coordinator would not have this information.

#### *3.3. Data Collection Instrument*

The questionnaire used [49], which has been previously validated, has the ultimate goal of determining and analyzing the perception that secondary school students have of ESL learning through games and gamification. The instrument is divided into several sections. The first one integrates sociodemographic questions and questions aimed at finding out the students' proficiency levels and relationships with English. The following 28 items are closed-ended, with a five-grade Likert-type scale (1: strongly disagree; 2: disagree; 3: neither agree nor disagree; 4: agree and 5: strongly agree). These are further subdivided

into four dimensions. The first seven items are dedicated to role-playing games, the next six to the gamification sessions, the following six to the use of the English language in the game and the last nine to find out their general opinion.

#### *3.4. Data Collection Techniques*

The technique used to analyze the information obtained is statistics and, specifically, descriptive analysis. It is used to summarize the information contained. Version 24.0 of the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) predictive and graphic analytics platform was used for analyzing the data.

#### **4. Results**

This section may be divided into subheadings. It should provide a concise and precise description of the experimental results, their interpretation, and the experimental conclusions that can be drawn.

#### *4.1. Students' Perceptions about Their Own Proficiency Level, Once the Gamification Is Over*

The descriptive statistics of the research variables, specifically the mean scores (X˜) and standard deviations (σ), of the purpose stated in the study, are shown below.

As Table 2 shows, students' have intermediate proficiency levels (X˜PA1.3 = 3.58). More specifically, they state they have better oral (X˜PA1.4 = 3.92) and written (X˜PA1.5 = 3.92) comprehension. However, their production proficiency levels, both oral (X˜PA1.6 = 3.58) and written (X˜PA1.7 = 3.50), are average.


**Table 2.** Descriptive statistics of students' perceptions of their English proficiency levels.

*4.2. Student's Perceptions about the Use of Role-Playing Games in the ESL Classroom Once the Gamification Is Over*

Regarding students' opinions about the use of role-playing games in the English classroom, Table 3 shows that they believe that role-playing games help them improve their speaking (X˜PB1.2 = 4.50) and listening (X˜PB1.1 = 4.33) skills. Moreover, they state that they feel more comfortable and confident to speak English in the classroom (X˜PB1.5 = 4.33) and, above all, board games motivate them to participate more (X˜PB1.6 = 4.42), fostering peer interrelations (X˜PB1.7 = 4.08).


**Table 3.** Descriptive statistics of students' perceptions about the use of board games in the ESL classroom.

*4.3. Students' Perceptions about Educational Gamification in the ESL Classroom Once the Gamification Is Over*

As Table 4 shows, students believed that they all had the opportunity to participate in the game (X˜PB.2.6 = 4.75) and that they have focused more on learning and enjoying rather than on winning (X˜PB.2.3 = 4.75). Moreover, they participated constantly during the game (X˜PB.2.2 = 4.67) and spoke more in English than in Spanish (X˜PB.2.1 = 4.53).

**Table 4.** Descriptive statistics of students' perceptions about the educational gamification in ESL.


*4.4. Students' Perceptions about the Use of English during the Game Once the Gamification Is Over*

As reflected in Table 5, students claim to have been able to understand their peers' points of view (X˜PB.3.2 = 4.42), having always or almost always used English to communicate (X˜PB.3.3 = 4.42). In addition, they stated they have always or almost always answered in English to the teacher (X˜PB.3.6 = 4.25), understanding all or almost all conversations held in English with peers and/or the teacher (X˜PB.3.1 = 4.25).


**Table 5.** Descriptive statistics of students' perceptions about the use of English during the gamification.

#### *4.5. Students' General Perceptions about the Gamified Experience*

Finally, as Table 6 shows, students assess gamification sessions as a very effective tool to improve their English proficiency level (X˜PB.4.2 = 4.75). Moreover, they generally prefer them to other types of activities (X˜PB.4.3 = 4.58), because they are, according to them, more entertaining than a traditional session (X˜PB.4.1 = 4.58). In addition, they find it a very good idea to learn English while playing (X˜PB.4.4 = 4.67).

**Table 6.** Descriptive statistical of students' perceptions about their general opinion about the experience.


#### **5. Discussion**

Throughout the study, we have been detailing the benefits that role-playing games and educational gamification in general regarding motivation and improving students' outcomes [6,23,36,39]. Therefore, the relevance and appropriateness of the design, implementation and evaluation of gamified didactic units in the classroom are amply justified. Furthermore, the results obtained show that students prefer gamified sessions to traditional teaching methods. This verifies what has been previously stated by authors such as Sarmiento et al. [11], Kapp [10], Hernández-Ramos and Belmonte [36] or Rueckert et al. [37].

The role-playing game described in this paper was based on creating a company, improving the disciplinary curricular content and the students' entrepreneurship skills, teamwork and motivation. Although there is no perfect methodology to work on entrepreneurship, the results can be improved as it is an experiential learning tool [50]. Moreover, gamification can achieve the paradigm shift from teacher-centeredness to student-centered teaching [11].

Regarding their English proficiency levels, students started from an average perception in all skills: listening, reading, speaking and writing, with the last two being the lowest ones, and therefore the ones that need to be improved. Even though speaking is always the most difficult skill that students find, they do not practice enough due to practical difficulties, such as anxiety, embarrassment or mistake phobia [51]. The results obtained after the evaluation of the experience by the students indicate that the skill they claim they most improved is speaking. As we have previously indicated, gamification had very positive results for teaching verb tenses [5], vocabulary [52] and for fostering more interaction among students [22]. In fact, some studies claim that through role-playing games students improve this skill as they express themselves actively and meaningfully, while fostering their creativity [53].

On the other hand, the scientific discourse on gamification in terms of the gender variable has a long history in which the initial supremacy of men in the video game industry led not only to the proliferation of men playing them, but also to an exaltation of sexualized women. However, the review by Lynch et al. [54] notes a greater presence of women as protagonists in games and a clear preference for role-playing games over other types of games and less sexualized features. In terms of teamwork, it should be noted that during the gamified intervention using role-playing games, students consider that everyone has had the opportunity to participate in the game, having focused more on learning and enjoying themselves than on winning. Role-playing games are a tool with which students must work in teams to achieve the same objectives, as they would do in the real world [55]. In addition, they claim to have maintained a constant level of participation throughout the game, having spoken more in English than in Spanish.

It is also worth mentioning the positive evaluations they make about how motivating the experience is, being a direct consequence of this, they feel more comfortable speaking English in the classroom, corroborating the studies of Sarmiento et al. [11] and Kapp [10].

Finally, we would like to mention the future possibilities and limitations of this study. Undoubtedly, the most important one is the limited number of participants with whom we could work. It would be advisable to repeat the experience with more students and a control group. Moreover, if it could be repeated in another educative context, i.e., with a non-bilingual class, more complete conclusions could be drawn.

In other previous studies in which gamification and role-playing games have been used to teach curricular content, other sociodemographic variables have not been considered [42]. Therefore, although all the results corroborate the relevance of this methodology, it is necessary to know the context in which we are working to maximize the results.

One of the difficulties related to the teaching–learning process, and not so much to the game itself, stems from having to work collaboratively in hybrid educational contexts derived from the COVID situation [56], and with the need to maintain social distance. Due to the use of masks, it was really complicated to understand the pronunciation, the gesticulation and dramatization accompanying the role-playing games, the preparation and work of the group outside the school premises, the exchange of materials, etc.

On the other hand, some difficulties derived from the designed game were detected regarding the excessively specialized and technical vocabulary used in some elements of it, such as the HMRC letter. The lack of experience of the students in these dynamics was reflected in the insecurity of not controlling the game and how the decisions taken in each of the challenges affected them, as well as in the lack of criteria, knowledge and arguments for making business decisions, making it difficult to stimulate the debates in the work groups. Moreover, the lack of familiarity with the role-playing strategy, shyness and fear of communicating in the classroom, together with the work overload for teachers and students, are two of the limitations associated with the game itself [57].

Regarding the teacher–student relationship, the role as facilitator played by the former should be emphasized. Sometimes students get carried away by fun and entertainment, overshadowing learning; therefore, it is important that the teacher acts as a moderator, taking control of all roles, redirecting the process and fostering students' motivation and their intention to act [58,59]. They were to act as different characters depending on the situation, whether as a television reporter or someone looking for information about the school. Moreover, it has been demonstrated that the teacher also enjoyed these kinds of games and is looking forward to seeing how the game develops [18]. There were some moments when the students were stuck, so he would intervene by mentioning some guidelines for them to follow. Furthermore, in the team meetings, the teacher would ask questions to stimulate the discussions and to encourage new ideas. He needs to be supportive through feedback, to help students overcome the fear of speaking in public and to create a climate of trust and respect. Thanks to this, students become more spontaneous and enthusiastic [57].

As this was a gamification experience in ESL, the teacher also had to resolve the linguistic doubts that arose, both so that the students could express themselves and so that they could understand the situations that were being presented. Finally, the role of the teacher was basically that of a game master, i.e., the person in charge of the game, of setting the timing, of establishing and finalizing new challenges, among others.

Some of the challenges that the students faced as entrepreneurs were, first, to find an innovative idea. Role-playing games can raise awareness of entrepreneurial spirit [60], which is a powerful economic tool for the future of a country [61]. However, as this was partially delimited in the introduction of the role-playing game, the students had to show their creativity in delimiting the aspects of content, marketing, target audience, structure, organization chart of the company, etc. Afterwards, they had to look for a way to finance their project and, once this was obtained, to pay their taxes. When the company was operational, one of the main difficulties encountered by any entrepreneur or worker is managing business conflicts and interpersonal relations between workers and employers. Persuasive communication, which is vital in the business world and not so often taught in schools [60], is a key element of these relationships and one way to work on this is through role-playing games as they foster students' confidence when speaking. Regarding conflicts, role-playing games positively influence students' self-efficacy in problem solving, critical thinking and teamwork [62]. This is supported by another study which concludes that entrepreneurship education through role-playing games is a completely effective and valid method [61]. As Radianto and Santoso [63] state, the entrepreneurship process has two main aspects: the financial and non-financial ones. It is crucial that the teacher understands how students are running their business to give them proper guidance.

In conclusion, we would like to highlight the importance that gamification and other innovative methodologies have and will have in education due to their educational implications and the good results they have been obtaining. Similarly, we would like to emphasize the need for teachers to be trained in gamification, which, as indicated by Jassen [40], is a very demanding methodology for them. However, as have been detailed in gamification studies, they achieve excellent results [15,35,52]. In addition, we believe that more training in new technologies and innovative methodologies will reduce the time needed to create new gamified experiences and the insecurity of some teachers when employing them in the classroom [64].

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, M.Á.H.-P. and J.C.M.-R.; methodology, M.L.B.; validation, M.Á.H.-P. and M.L.B.; formal analysis, J.C.M.-R.; investigation, J.C.M.-R.; resources, J.C.M.-R.; data curation, M.L.B.; writing—original draft preparation, J.C.M.-R.; writing—review and editing, M.Á.H.-P. and M.L.B.; visualization, M.Á.H.-P.; supervision, M.Á.H.-P. and M.L.B.; project administration, M.Á.H.-P. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research received no external funding.

**Institutional Review Board Statement:** The study was conducted according to the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki. and the protocol was approved by the schools where the study took place.

**Informed Consent Statement:** Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study. Moreover, the school involved authorized this research project.

**Data Availability Statement:** The data presented in this study are available on request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available due to privacy.

**Acknowledgments:** We would like to thank the teachers, students and families of the high school where the project was developed for the possibility of developing it.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.

#### **References**

