Designing Educational Escape Rooms as a Tool for Learning and Teaching English

Gluk, Patricija (author), Sokolov, Cvetka (mentor)

This thesis explores the effects of educational escape rooms on students who are learning English as a foreign language, focusing on their motivation to learn, ability to collaborate with their teammates, vocabulary acquisition items in an educational escape room, immersion in the game, active learning, and critical thinking. The thesis also deals with some of the challenges of this method, such as the alignment of the game with educational aspects, the time investment needed to develop the game and the time limit of the 45-minute lesson, the transfer of the knowledge obtained during the game into the real world, maintaining target language use during the game and proper difficulty, and dealing with cheating and hacking. Based on two classroom observations of the game, student questionnaires and an interview with the teacher present in the classroom, we can conclude that the students were familiar with escape rooms, but not with educational escape rooms, and that they felt motivated to win the game. Additionally, the students felt that they belonged to their team, spent most of the lesson speaking in the target language and thought that the debrief after the game was important. The teacher thinks that educational escape rooms are a beneficial learning method, but they cannot be used in class on a regular basis because of time constraints.

• Language: English
• Keywords: educational escape room, active learning, student motivation, peer collaboration, debrief
• Work type: Master's thesis/paper
• Organization: FF - Faculty of Arts
• Year: 2025
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-177309
• Publication date in RUL: 20.12.2025

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: Oblikovanje izobraževalnih sob pobega kot sredstva za učenje in poučevanje angleščine

Abstract

Magistrsko delo raziskuje, kakšen vpliv imajo izobraževalne sobe pobega na učenje angleščine kot tujega jezika z vidika učne motivacije, medvrstniškega sodelovanja, razširjanja besednega zaklada, zatopljenosti v igro, aktivnega učenja in kritičnega mišljenja. Ukvarja se tudi z izzivi, ki jih prinaša ta metoda poučevanja, kot so usklajevanje igre z izobraževalnimi cilji, časovni vložek v razvoj igre in omejitev časa zaradi dolžine učne ure. Izziv predstavlja tudi prenos znanja, pridobljenega med igro, v resnični svet in skrb, da učenci komunicirajo v ciljnem jeziku in da se zahtevnost igre ujema z zmožnostmi učencev. Učitelj se mora razen tega primerno odzvati na goljufanje. Na podlagi opazovanja učne ure, pri kateri so učenci izkusili izobraževalno sobo pobega, anket, ki so jih rešili, in intervjuja z učiteljico, ki je bila prisotna v razredu, ugotavljamo, da dijaki sobe pobega poznajo, medtem ko so jim izobraževalne sobe pobega neznane. Ugotavljamo tudi, da je bila večina dijakov med igro motivirana, da bi zmagali, da so za dosego tega cilja sodelovali in da so čutili pripadnost svoji skupini. Na podlagi anket sklepamo, da so se dijaki med igro večino časa pogovarjali v angleškem jeziku. Razen tega v anketi navajajo, da je razprava po koncu igre po njihovem mnenju pomembna. Učiteljica je bila mnenja, da so sobe pobega koristna učna metoda, vendar jih zaradi časovnih omejitev pri pouku ni mogoče redno izvajati.

• Keywords: izobraževalne sobe pobega, aktivno učenje, učna motivacija, medvrstniško sodelovanje, razprava po igri