In the study I would like to present, the aim is to gain insight into teacher education students’ experience with the introduction of the use of escape rooms as a didactic tool in the teaching and learning of mathematics. Escape room is a new, game-based, didactic tool in school that may offer teacher education students new possibilities in the mathematics classroom. According to Nicholson (2015) escape rooms are live-action, team-based games in which the players discover clues, solve puzzles, and accomplish tasks to complete a mission in a limited amount of time. Within educational research we see a steady increase in the use of escape rooms as a didactic tool (e.g. Morell et al., 2020; Ouariachi & Wim, 2020; Taraldsen et al., 2020; Veldkamp et al., 2020), where most research articles refer to the use of escape rooms in teaching in higher education (Taraldsen et al., 2020; Veldkamp et al., 2020).

In addition, for instance Borasi and Finnegan (2010) and Van der Heijden et al. (2015) highlight the potential of teachers as change agents, and Taraldsen et al. (2020) identify this potential in the teacher education student’s position as well, because teacher education students may bring new ideas to the schools where they conduct their teaching practice as students and to the schools where they eventually work as teachers. One such idea is to use escape rooms for teaching and learning in mathematics. According to the theories of John Dewey (e.g. Dewey, 1916, 1938), experience may transfer into learning, which means that teacher education students in practice periods, and then as qualified teachers, may bring new ideas, didactic tools and possibilities to the practice field, based on what they learn during their teacher education. This is not just because they learn something specific about a didactic tool such as escape rooms, but also because, in general, they go through a significant kind of learning-based metamorphosis, from being an experienced pupil to becoming a new teacher, which may affect their beliefs about mathematics teaching and learning (e.g. Beijaard et al., 2000), and therefore what priorities to make in their teaching. Van Zoest et al. (1994) reveal that teacher education students in general have had quite traditional, experience-based beliefs about teaching and learning priorities in school mathematics when they enter a teacher education programme. Through their time at a teacher education programme the students may be introduced to, and influenced by, approaches and opinions regarding mathematics teaching and learning that may challenge their beliefs. Because of its well-documented novelty, the introduction to escape rooms offered the participating teacher education students one such belief-influencing opportunity.

Therefore, the introduction of escape rooms for use in mathematics to teacher education students may have two objectives. First, escape rooms are a new, game-based, didactic tool that offers teacher education students an example of non-traditional possibilities in the mathematics classroom. Second, the introduction may offer the opportunity to gain insight into teacher education students’ development as mathematics teachers and position as possible change agents for mathematics teaching in school, through well-grounded influence on their bildung (Hohr, 2011) as mathematics teachers. Hence, attention to these two objectives was given in my study through this research question:

How do teacher education students experience an introduction to the use of escape rooms as a didactic tool in the teaching and learning of mathematics?

In this study a qualitative design was applied to understand teacher education students’ experiences of the use of escape rooms as a didactic tool in the teaching and learning of mathematics. 12 teacher education students, from a group of 44 students taking a 7.5 ETCS mathematics education course in the sixth semester of a five-year-long teacher education programme, were recruited to take part in the study. The data were collected in the spring of 2021. Data were collected through three stages. At the first stage the students answered a small, qualitative survey. This was followed by a stage of observation. Finally semi-structured focus group interviews were conducted. The analyses started with a preliminary, deductive analysis, with emphasis on theory-driven identification of categories related to game-based learning and escape room, and Dewey’s theory of learning through experience. Four categories related to learning were identified: experience, self-regulation, social interaction and motivation. I then used the data from both the survey and the observation to interpret and try to understand the experience that the teacher education students were involved in and identified three areas of interest: expectations, experiences and present thoughts. In a next round of deductive analysis, I analysed the transcripts from the three focus group interviews to further investigate how teacher education students experience an introduction to use of escape rooms as a didactic tool in the teaching and learning of mathematics. This round of analysis included attention to self-regulation, social interaction and motivation in addition to experience. This deduction-based analysis was followed by multiple close readings and interpretations of the transcripts. This attempt to get a revised overall understanding of the studied introduction can be described as inductive because of the influence from my revised preconception based on the conducted deductive analyses. These analyses of teacher education students’ experiences, along with Dewey’s theory on learning, an established understanding of impact from the teacher’s beliefs and identity on the teaching of mathematics within mathematics education research, and Klafki’s theory on categorical bildung allowed me to enter an abductive phase of analysis. The introduction to escape rooms provided the teacher education students with experiences that may have an impact on their beliefs about mathematics teaching and learning, and their bildung as mathematics teachers. However, this possible influence is hidden, both for me and for them. Hence, hypotheses can only be generated regarding bildung and the teacher education students’ possible change agent influence.

The findings show that use of escape rooms in mathematics teaching was met from a traditional perspective on teaching and learning of mathematics in school, for instance through the importance of getting to know the solutions to problems. However, the findings also implied glimpses of willingness and curiosity about the idea of trying out this new, game-based, didactic tool. It is important to emphasize that teacher education students will face and critically interpret various didactic tools on their journey towards their future positions as teachers. The introduction to escape rooms offered them opportunities for both active and passive experiences, and to critically reflect on teaching and learning of mathematics based on application of a new didactic tool. This may have made a difference when it comes to the intrinsic impact on the students’ beliefs and thereby bildung as mathematics teachers. One of the students stated that without the well-founded introduction to escape rooms she experienced, she would have been unlikely to try out escape rooms in her own teaching practice. By bringing escape rooms into mathematics teaching in school, the teacher education student may be recognized as a mathematics teaching change agent, but such an initiative will only stem from an inner conviction about the value of making such a didactic choice, related to one’s didactic stance. The findings in this study are based on the participation of a few teacher education students, during their introduction to this particular didactic tool. Therefore, additional research on teacher education students’ use of escape rooms as a didactic tool in practice periods, or as new teachers in primary and secondary school teaching, is needed to form an impression of their position as change agents when applying an escape room based on the didactic questions of what you learn and how you learn.

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