The study investigates the effectiveness of room-escape game integrated creativity teaching on students' academic achievement, learning motivation, creative self-efficacy, problem-solving, and creativity. A quasi-experimental design was implemented over the course for ten weeks. Two fifth-grade Science classes, with a total of 43 students, were randomly assigned to one of two conditions: an Experimental Group (Exp: room-escape game integrated creativity teaching approach, N=22) and a Control Group (Ctrl: traditional teaching approach, N=21). To provide substantive empirical evidence, a mixed method design - embedded experimental model was employed throughout the investigation. The priority of the research was established by the quantitative, experimental methodology, and the qualitative dataset was conducted as a subservient source within the investigation. Several statistical analysis methods were employed, including the descriptive statistics, paired sample t-test, and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), to evaluate the changes in students’ multiple capabilities through the experimental teaching. Two sets of qualitative data, including student focus group interview and classroom observation, were then analyzed as a complement source to triangulate the quantitative findings. The main findings of the current study are summarized as follows: (1) Academic achievement: the analysis of pre-post data indicated that both the Exp group and the Ctrl group’s academic achievement were significantly increased and there was no statistically significant difference found between the two groups. However, the Exp group witnessed a better improvement through the experiment. While the pre-test data indicated that the Ctrl group had better achievement, the post-test data yielded that the Exp group outperformed the Ctrl group. (2) Learning motivation: the analysis of pre-post data indicated that the Exp group experienced a significant improvement in learning motivation through the experiment, and significantly better than the Ctrl group in the post-test. (3) Creative self-efficacy: the analysis of pre-post data indicated that the Exp group experienced a significant improvement in creative self-efficacy, and significantly outperformed the Ctrl group in the post-test. (4) Creative problem-solving: both the two groups showed significant improvement in problem-solving, and no significant difference found between the two groups in the post-test. (5) Creativity: the analysis of pre-post data of both verbal test and the figure test indicated that the creativity of the Exp group students improved significantly through the experiment and significantly outperformed the Ctrl group students in the post-test. Most importantly, the significant improvement found in the Exp student’s academic achievement, learning motivation, creative self-efficacy, problem-solving, and creativity suggest that the room-escape game integrated creativity teaching can be exploited as a useful and productive approach to facilitate students in active learning while enriching the classroom atmosphere. Future research in room-escape game integrated approach may consider emphasizing the evaluation of other higher order thinking elements of the cognitive domain regarding academic achievement outcomes and skills, such as critical thinking, collaboration, cooperation, and communication skills.

A quasi-experimental design was implemented for ten weeks. Two fifth-grade Science classes, with a total of 43 students, were randomly assigned to one of two conditions: an Experimental Group (Exp: room-escape game integrated creativity teaching approach, N=22) and a Control Group (Ctrl: traditional teaching approach, N=21). To provide substantive empirical evidence, a mixed method design - embedded experimental model was employed throughout the investigation. The priority of the research was established by the quantitative, experimental methodology, and the qualitative dataset was conducted as a subservient source within the investigation. Several research instruments were used to examine the impact of the experimental teaching, including Science academic tests, self-developed Creative Self-efficacy and Creative Problem-Solving Scale, Learning Motivation Scale for Primary and Junior High School Students (Liu et al., 2010), the Chinese version Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (hereafter Chinese TTCT, Wu et al., 1998), and Creativity Education Questionnaire (Kuo et al., 2017). Several statistical analysis methods were employed, including the descriptive statistics, paired sample t-test, and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), to evaluate the changes in students’ multiple capabilities through the experimental teaching. Two sets of qualitative data, including student focus group interview and classroom observation, were then analyzed as a complement source to triangulate the quantitative findings.

The main findings are as follows: (1) Academic achievement: Both the Exp group and the Ctrl group’s academic achievement were significant. However, the Exp group witnessed a better improvement through the experiment. (2) Learning motivation: The Exp group experienced a significant improvement in learning motivation through the experiment, and significantly better than the Ctrl group in the post-test. (3) Creative self-efficacy: The Exp group experienced a significant improvement in creative self-efficacy, and significantly outperformed the Ctrl group in the post-test. (4) Creative problem-solving: Both the two groups showed significant improvement in problem-solving, and no significant difference found between the two groups in the post-test. (5) Creativity: The verbal and figure tests indicated that the creativity of the Exp group students improved significantly through the experiment and significantly outperformed the Ctrl group students in the post-test. The significant improvement found in the Exp students suggests that the room-escape game integrated creativity teaching can be exploited as a useful and productive approach to facilitate students in active learning while enriching the classroom atmosphere. Future research may consider emphasizing the evaluation of other higher order thinking elements of the cognitive domain regarding academic achievement outcomes and skills, such as critical thinking, collaboration, cooperation, and communication skills.

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