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Educational games, prevalent in contemporary settings, leverage game-based learning (GBL) to actively engage and enhance learners' knowledge and skill acquisition through captivating in-game learning activities. To assess the effectiveness of GBL, game-based assessment (GBA) has emerged. GBA employs gameplay for learners to attain educational objectives while capturing data for analyzing their in-game competencies. The integration of gameplay in assessments has garnered increasing attention to GBA. This review of 21 studies provides an overview of the application of GBA in the field of education, covering aspects of the publication nature, theoretical frameworks, game types, in-game assessment details, and the assessed subjects and knowledge. Key findings include: (1) the annual number of publications fluctuates; a majority of studies originate from the USA; (2) the supporting theory tends to be unitary, with the evidence-centered design model cited the most; (3) simulation, immersive, and video games with rich game elements are applied most as assessment tools, and in-game assessment details are associated with game features; and (4) GBA is predominantly used in physics education. These findings indicate that applying GBA in education is promising with solid theoretical support, and practitioners are suggested to design GBA according to their educational needs and game features.

The need for online educational tools has increased significantly since the COVID-19 pandemic forced many students to embrace distance learning as a classroom alternative. While many instructors have used "Edpuzzle" to enhance distance learning, there has been little research that assesses and compares the views of teachers and students on the tool's advantages and disadvantages. To examine the perceived advantages and disadvantages of using "Edpuzzle" for classroom learning, we surveyed a sample of 152 professors and their students on their experience with the tool. The results reveal numerous advantages, including that "Edpuzzle" is a motivating, dynamic, and novel self-learning tool for students. Likewise, the professors point out that it is easy to use, focuses the attention of students, and is versatile. The disadvantages of the tool mostly had to do with technological challenges and potential boredom. Based on this evaluation, it was concluded that students have a preference for graphic and visual material to complement other learning tools to help them better understand the lessons. When weighing the advantages and disadvantages posed by the professors and their students, it was found that the unique combination of interactive teaching that "Edpuzzle" provides is promising for the future.

The increasingly neoliberal course of Higher Education is linked to rises in student anxiety around assessment and increased fear of the consequences of failure. Making mistakes is an inevitable part of any learning process (and of life generally) and managing failure in a productive and positive way is crucial for success and wellbeing beyond university. In this article, we argue that academia does not adequately prepare learners for managing mistake-making progressively and that escape rooms can provide a way to facilitate learning through failure. We first present an original model of failure-based learning that explores why being able to make mistakes safely is important for students and why the use of escape rooms in Higher Education presents an excellent opportunity for the application of this model. We then show the relevance of this model by using it to analyse two case studies that explore different ways in which educational escape rooms can be used in Higher Education: either designed to facilitate learning by "playing" a game; or supporting learning through designing a game. Our model of failure-based learning has three stages, emphasising the importance of "preparation," an iterative play cycle of testing, failing, reflecting, and revising, and finishing with a "presentation" phase. The article concludes by considering the limitations of educational escape rooms in this context and highlighting some practical considerations for the use of these approaches.

Escape rooms are an established game genre that has become popular in educational contexts in recent years. Digital escape rooms are variations, which use digital environments and may be played by participants not present on site. Compared to physical escape rooms, digital escape rooms are characterised by lower implementation and application efforts and at the same time by reduced intensity of the experiences. There is little evidence to date as to whether these lowthreshold escape rooms are nevertheless sufficiently effective for learning. In this evaluation study, a learning activity based on a digital educational escape room (DEER) that uses the 360°-based spatial visualization (360VR) of a waterworks and a web-based form -- contributing guidance and the escape room-specific challenges -- is analysed. In the learning activity, students of environmental engineering study programs are asked to explore the 360VR-based waterworks guided by the instructions and challenges in the web-based form. Quantitative results of the study on learning outcomes and variables relevant to learning, such as emotion, motivation, and usability (N=73) are reported. The evaluation is supported by the qualitative results of guided interviews. Remarkably, some participants would have preferred to explore the 360VR environment without the guidance provided by the web-based form. Overall, the results show the learning effectiveness of the DEER, the efficacy of the web-based form as a guidance instrument, and values of learning-relevant variables that are conducive to learning. The DEER also achieved a high level of acceptance among students. Due to the low effort required for the creation of the DEER by lecturers and for application on the part of students, the presented combination of 360VR and web-based forms can be seen as a powerful low-threshold learning tool that enriches teaching.

A didactic sequence is proposed using an infrared puzzle and a didactic questionnaire for the teaching-learning of infrared spectroscopy at the upper secondary level. The didactic sequence that was designed was implemented in person in the subject of Chemistry IV at the high school level, corresponding to the sixth semester of the curriculum of the National School of Sciences and Humanities (CCH), Vallejo Campus, of the National Autonomous University of Mexico. In the didactic sequence, students understand the importance of functional groups where they determine organic compounds, by identifying regularities, properties, and structure of alcohols, aldehydes, ketones, and carboxylic acids. After applying the didactic sequence, a post-test questionnaire was applied, and the results showed that the students significantly improved their knowledge of IR when using the puzzle that allowed them to correctly identify the bands that identify the carbonyl group.

Metalinguistic Awareness is the ability to consciously reflect on and manipulate language, from the level of the phoneme, to words, to whole phrases. Research has shown that engaging in metalinguistic activities can have a positive impact on reading. This article details some of the component skills of metalinguistic awareness (in this case, primarily phonology, morphology, and semantics) and explores how word puzzles can be employed as a means of authentic practice for elementary age students. The authors describe how to analyze games and puzzles for the component language skills practiced, and also how to get started implementing them in the classroom. Strategies are discussed in how to modify and use these games in support of an existing curriculum.

Mathematical problem solving remains a struggle for many students today (Celebioglu et al., 2010; Englard, 2010; Gavaz et al., 2021; N. H. Lee et al., 2014; Yeo, 2011). Though intervention studies have reported measured impact on improving students' problem-solving abilities (Gavaz et al., 2021; Gidalevich & Kramarski, 2019; N. H. Lee et al., 2014), few studies examine how learners would approach a non-routine problem without learning problem-solving strategies in school (Celebioglu et al., 2010; Saygili, 2017; Yazgan, 2015; Yeo, 2011). The latter would complement instruction related to strategies by making known the entry point of young problem solvers. In this study, 10 Grade Two students in a neighborhood primary school in Singapore were individually engaged in solving a non-routine problem with access to manipulatives. Based on their mathematics instructional history in school, the students have not been introduced to the relevant problem-solving strategies related to the task. The study examines how the students approach and solve the problem. Findings revealed that all the ten students were able to solve the problem with eight of them using manipulatives to help them. The study recommends that prior to classroom teaching, teachers can invite students to share their problem-solving methods and demonstrate how formal notations can capture these mathematically. Appropriate manipulatives should also be made accessible during problem-solving lessons.

To date, extensive work has been devoted to incorporating computational thinking in K-12 education. Recognizing students' computational thinking stages in game-based learning environments is essential to capture unproductive learning and provide appropriate scaffolding. However, few reliable and valid computational thinking measures have been developed, especially in games, where computational knowledge acquisition and computational skill construction are implicit. This study introduced an innovative approach to explore students' implicit computational thinking through various explicit factors in game-based learning, with a specific focus on Zoombinis, a logical puzzle-based game designed to enhance students' computational thinking skills. Our results showed that factors such as duration, accuracy, number of actions and puzzle difficulty were significantly related to students' computational thinking stages, while gender and grade level were not. Besides, findings indicated gameplay performance has the potential to reveal students' computational thinking stages and skills. Effective performance (shorter duration, fewer actions and higher accuracy) indicated practical problem-solving strategies and systematic computational thinking stages (eg, Algorithm Design). This work helps simplify the process of implicit computational thinking assessment in games by observing the explicit factors and gameplay performance. These insights will serve to enhance the application of gamification in K-12 computational thinking education, offering a more efficient method to understanding and fostering students' computational thinking skills.

Addressing cognitive disparities has become a paramount concern in computational thinking (CT) education. The intricate and nuanced relationships between CT and cognitive variations emphasize the needs to accommodate diverse cognitive profiles when fostering CT skills, recognizing that these cognitive functions can manifest as either strengths or limitations in different students. Consequently, understanding the connections between students' cognitive functions and CT skills assumes pivotal importance in the design of personalized instructional strategies for CT. Despite a general consideration of learning variability in CT education, empirical insights exploring the correlation between cognitive skills and CT competencies remain notably scarce. This study endeavors to bridge this research gap by investigating the links between executive functions and CT skills, as well as the associations between their sub-dimensions. The results reveal a statistically significant correlation coefficient of 0.452 between these two domains, underscoring the notable connection between executive functions and CT abilities. Furthermore, the sub-dimensional analysis offers a comprehensive understanding of how specific executive functions uniquely contribute to certain CT skills. In light of these findings, this research offers a promising pathway for the development of tailored CT education programs that can cater to the unique needs of each individual, ultimately facilitating inclusive CT programs and making significant contributions to broaden STEM education and future workforce.

Introduction: There are major differences when children with blindness perform construction tasks using haptics, without relying on sight, compared to when children with typical vision perform them through sight. When using sight, in all of the processes, the overall image can be grasped simultaneously while executing the task. When using haptics, the construction must be made by touching each piece sequentially and successively. In this study, framed block puzzle construction tasks that can be implemented by haptic means are developed with the objective of considering the order of difficulty of the task. Methods: In all, six framed block puzzle construction tasks were performed by 39 children with blindness, and the analysis was conducted from the perspective of the task-completion ratio. These six tasks were established on the basis of factors such as wood panel division and dimension, symmetry and asymmetry, and the number of block patterns. Results: A significant difference was observed in the completion ratio between one- and two-dimensional tasks, between two-dimensional symmetrical and asymmetrical tasks, and between two-dimensional asymmetrical tasks with multiple and single correct patterns. Discussion: This study clarified that the task order of difficulty is influenced by the factors of division and dimension, symmetry and asymmetry, and number of block patterns. Thus, we identified a task order wherein difficulty increases in the order of one- and two-dimensional symmetrical tasks and two-dimensional asymmetrical tasks with multiple and single correct patterns. Implications for Practitioners: Based on these hypotheses, providing instructions to children with blindness, in the order of simple to difficult tasks, is vital after ascertaining each child's level of capacity for spatial cognition.

Educational escape rooms (ER) are an instructional activity designed to incorporate many elements of recreational ERs, which have become popular in recent years. There are many reasons to consider incorporating educational ERs into K-12 math instruction or after-school programs/camps. First, they are highly motivating for students because they engage them in game-like elements, including solving puzzles (Stohlmann, 2020). Second, education ERs foster teamwork and communication and encourage productive struggle (Borrego et al., 2017; Fotaris & Mastoras, 2019). Third, educational ERs can help students explore mathematical concepts in a fun way; however, it is important to ensure that ER puzzles are aligned with relevant learning goals and content standards (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 2014). Based on the literature, the main obstacles to incorporating ERs into instruction seem to be that teachers view educational ERs as too complicated, costly, and time-consuming to develop. Thus, the purpose of this article is to provide a step-by-step process teachers can follow to efficiently design high-quality educational ERs without breaking the bank. The authors use their elementary-level Treasure Hunt example to illustrate our ER design process, but this process can be applied across all grades and involve a variety of context.

There is increasing interest in the application of game-based learning approaches to education. Educators across a wide range of contexts are using digital games such as educational escape rooms to promote learner motivation and support skills development. Whilst the literature describes multiple game-based learning theories that can underpin such strategies, there is little practical guidance on how to integrate such conceptual elements into the design of digital educational escape rooms. This study aims to address this gap, outlining the use of an online design-thinking process to plan, build, and test a digital educational escape room. Our findings suggest that this process provides an effective way of harnessing team collaboration and innovation in the development of digital educational resources. The process provides structure for game design teams, enabling them to address complex or "messy" educational development problems. In utilising an online design-thinking process to design games for learning, we make a number of recommendations. These include taking time to establish psychological safety within the design team so as to facilitate creative team processes and supporting team members to adopt a design-thinking mindset throughout (e.g., regularly taking the perspective of the game user, and testing game prototypes early and frequently). Finally, our study offers a detailed description of how the online design-thinking process can be applied in an education context with the aim of offering guidance to educators and students who may want to design, build, and test their own digital educational escape rooms.

Attention-based learning tasks of modern classrooms require processing of information in working memory. Not much is known about the cognitive processes operating during these tasks. To gain an understanding of the processes that support cognitive functions like learning, we have monitored the activity of the brain waves emanating from the frontal lobes region of a group of high school students working on a series of conceptually-linked tasks using a commercially available electroencephalographic (EEG) headband. Analysis of the EEG recordings revealed an increase in the relative power of gamma and beta as students worked through the tasks, suggesting that they were adding items in the working memory, retaining them, retrieving and reading them out for either use in the tasks or disposal. Remarkably, a decrease in alpha activity indicated that students seem to be attenuating the inhibition of distracting images retrieved from memory to make a larger pool of words available for solving the word puzzle. Such cognitive processing probably increased the load in the working memory as indicated by reduction in theta activity. Lastly, the students increased wakeful attention and alertness by lowering the delta activity. These results provide new insights into the cognitive functions operating during attention-based classroom learning tasks.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of cognitive training (CT) using mobile applications on attentional control and impulsivity among pre-service teachers. Pre-service teachers were divided into two groups: experimental (n=25) and control (n=14) groups, they were selected from a large sample (n=718). Over 28 sessions, the training group engaged in CT tasks (the tower of Hanoi [TOH] and simple reaction time [SRT]), whereas the control group did not participate in training sessions or understand the main goal of the study. In the criterion tasks (matching familiar figures and numerical Stroop), all participants were pre- and post-tested. CT using mobile applications helps us see how the trained group's attentional control and impulsivity had influenced. we also observed the progress of trained group as measured by number of moves or time for TOH, and reaction time (RT) for SRT. Other effects were observed in comparison to a control group that underwent no training. There were changes in impulsivity in post-test in favor of training group according to number of moves, and time component of matching familiar figures test. Corresponding to attentional control, the finding indicated that there were changes in (number and size) RT component in post-test in favor of training group.

Today, it is widely acknowledged that the use of the Internet and the development, production, and sharing of content over the web has become widespread. Web technologies that provide these conveniences are commonly referred to as Web 2.0 tools. This study aims to develop the skills of pre-service teachers who will teach Turkish as a mother tongue to produce digital content for mother tongue teaching with Web 2.0 tools. The research was conducted with action research, one of the qualitative research methods. The participants developed their digital content production skills through the research using many different Web 2.0 tools. With these different Web 2.0 tools, the participants developed instructional content such as puzzles, online quizzes, presentations, video preparation and editing, blogs/websites, and concept maps. The various digital contents developed by the participants with different Web 2.0 tools are digital teaching materials for reading, writing, listening/watching, and speaking skills that form the basis of mother tongue teaching. The participants' thoughts about feeling inadequate about web 2.0 tools before the implementation changed after the implementation. The participants could produce content with Web 2.0 tools, improve their teaching skills, and benefit from these tools in their teaching practicum.

The identification of suitable topics in action research can be challenging due to the complex nature of the educational context and the diverse factors that influence problem identification processes. This qualitative multi-case study explores problem identification among pre-service teachers involved in action research (AR). Twenty-nine participants (pre-service teachers, university-based supervisors, and school mentors) from two South American (Colombia and Chile) initial Foreign Language Teacher Education programs were interviewed on problem identification origins and influential factors. The study also used document analysis of program curricula, course programs, syllabi, and standards for the foreign language teaching profession across contexts. Thematic analysis suggests that problem identification has both bottom-up and top-down sources, and it is influenced by the prescriptive and facilitative roles of mentors and supervisors, the pre-service teachers' research competences, and a series of contextual factors. We discuss the results along with integrated data, point out several critical issues for action research in initial L2 teacher education and introduce a set of considerations to facilitate processes of problem identification.

In recent years, Game-Based Learning (GBL) has been widely adopted in various educational settings. This paper aims to review empirical studies that adopt GBL in the field of AI education and explore its future research perspectives. After a systematic keyword search in the online database and a snowballing approach, a total of 125 empirical papers with 133 studies were targeted as samples. Results indicated that the games in AI education are mainly fell into five categories: Puzzle games are the most used in the curriculum (27.07%), followed by Reasoning strategy games (23.31%), Robot games (18.05%), Role-playing games (9.02%) and Simulation games (6.77%). Among them, 22.39% of games were with real characters, 11.94% were with virtual characters and 64.18% were with no characters. Besides, games were used in three main forms in AI education: games as teaching tools (78.95%), games as student works (12.03%), and games as a competing mechanism (9.02%). Researchers mainly paid attention to the effect of GBL on students' Opinions and Attitude (52.96%) and Learning achievement (24.04%), while the other three categories such as Skills and ability, Interaction, and Cognition were not extensively measured. The cross-sectional analysis, research gaps, and potential directions for future research were also discussed.

Interprofessional education is a key component of preparing health professional students to become collaborative practice-ready graduates. In the design and delivery of activities, educators seek ways to enhance student participation and learning with the goal of developing students' collaborative practice capabilities. Traditionally, learning formats have largely maintained a clinical focus to enable students to learn with, from and about each other's roles as health professionals. In recent years, escape rooms have emerged as an innovative teaching approach within interprofessional education. Utilising gamification, escape rooms require students to work collaboratively, employing teamwork, communication, conflict resolution and problem-solving skills to 'escape' a set scenario. This article explores our experience of using escape rooms as an interprofessional education strategy. Additionally, we report on trialling a non-clinical focus within the activity as an alternative means of educating students for collaborative practice.

Empathy is an essential human skill that can be divided into two types: (1) cognitive empathy, which is the capacity of understanding others' thoughts and emotions; and (2) affective empathy, which is the capacity to feel others' emotional states. Many educational contents exist for both types, and immersive virtual reality (VR) has been shown to be effective for empathy education. However, there is a lack of educational content on recognizing and accepting that people can have different perspectives and feelings in the same situation, which is a prerequisite for cognitive empathy. To this end, we developed an immersive VR game "Mysterious Museum" where the player solves various puzzles based on ambiguous images and three-dimensional models. Moreover, we implemented six versions of a level in the game based on design concepts for camera perspective (combinations of first-person and third-person with camera techniques) and content exhibition (gallery, conveyor belt). We then conducted a mixed-method formative evaluation with 19 participants (11 females, eight males, average age 25.4 years) measuring usability of the game, as well as cybersickness and preferences for the design concepts. The game's usability was satisfactory except for the quality of instructions. Moreover, the conveyor belt, where the player does not need to move, was preferred over the gallery, while the fixed first-person perspective was the most preferred camera perspective. The latter along with the conveyor belt exhibition method caused the least cybersickness. These results can be useful to designers, developers, researchers, and psychologists interested in VR-based empathy education.

The algebraic group Spin[subscript 3 × 3] arises from spinning collections of the numbers 1-9 on a 3×3 game board. The authors have been using this group, as well as a corresponding online application, to introduce undergraduate students to core concepts in group theory. We discuss the benefits of using this deceptively simple, toy-like puzzle in terms of student learning and engagement. Practical exercises as well as use cases outside the abstract algebra classroom are provided at the end.

This study aims to explore the application of Transactional Distance theory in distance teaching in the post-epidemic era. COVID-19 has brought us unprecedented challenges in all schools in the world. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) can solve the technical problems of distance learning, but cannot bring efficient learning just through the online version of the existing courses by tools. The key to improving distance learning efficiency is to increase interactivity. According to that, this study echoes Moore's theory of transactional distance (TD) and designed a learning space on Gather to observe the class online and collect research data through Questionnaires and focus groups. We analyzed a total of 17 students in a junior high school in North Taiwan. We found that 1. the space design of a distance learning classroom can help students' rate of dialogue in the instructional events and reduce the transactional distance. 2. Multiple expression channels are helpful for teachers to obtain more judgments of students' current learning progress, and then adjust the speed and method of teaching activities. 3. Distance teaching activities still take place on the screen, which is an extension of the physical space, and this makes the physical space in which the learner lives becomes more dimensional.

ePUZSOLVED is designed to help students understand the general communication models and experience the advantages and disadvantages of each. It will highlight how various modes of communication, when used appropriately, may lead people to solve problems, as exemplified by the online puzzle. Courses: Introduction of Communication Models, Review of Communication Models. Objectives: By completing this activity, students should be able to identify and differentiate the different categories of communication models; name situations where the different categories of communication models are applied; and explain the relevance of knowing the different categories of communication models.

This article presents a reflection on a teaching experience involving the use of the Brügner tangram, an interesting but little-known manipulative material. It details an activity conducted as part of an undergraduate mathematics education course for prospective primary school teachers. The main objective of this paper is to present the implementation of a sequence of activities designed to convey to future teachers the importance of systematically solving problems that involve searching for or constructing different cases. Specifically, participants are provided with the three pieces of the Brügner's tangram and assigned the task of identifying all possible convex polygons that can be constructed. Moreover, they are required to elucidate the methodological approach underpinning their exploratory process, with an emphasis on establishing relationships between the polygons. Graphs are introduced as one of the possible approaches for modelling the problem, offering a graphical representation that aids in the systematic search for solutions. This paper describes different activities involving the Brügner's tangram which has demonstrated its adaptability as an instructional resource. The teaching sequence adheres to the five-phase structure proposed within the framework of the van Hiele model, which is also part of the course.

The pedagogical value and global relevance of heritage education regarding the safeguarding of global tradition and practice for future generations is indisputable. This research aims to investigate the efficacy of integrating a puzzle-based game, with scaffolding strategies, to enhance students' understanding and appreciation of cultural heritage content. In the activity, students are tasked with reconstructing art patterns from cultural heritage artifacts, a process which is designed to bolster their performance in recognizing and appreciating such patterns. A control group, utilizing a non-interactive instructional video with the same content, was also established to contrast and evaluate the benefits of the game-based approach. The evaluation of knowledge acquisition and transfer was conducted through pattern tests, with the participants' eye movements recorded during the testing process. The results show that the participants in the game group exhibited significant advantages in terms of efficiently recognizing fundamental content and effectively transferring pattern recognition. Furthermore, the examination of the visual behavior within the game reveals that the integration of the jigsaw puzzle (game mechanic) and scaffolding (instructional strategy) can enhance the efficacy and cognitive strategies employed by participants in comprehending heritage content. This study develops design methodologies for cultural heritage games that enhances learning and appreciation.

Building activities can be used any time in the school year in mathematics classes to promote problem solving, perseverance, and to develop students' spatial thinking. Spatial visualization skills are the "ability to mentally manipulate, rotate, twist, or invert a pictorially presented stimulus object." The authors were guided by the notion that "students at all grade levels can benefit from the use of physical and virtual manipulative materials to provide visual models of a range of mathematical ideas" and that PK-12 programs "should enable all students to use visualization, spatial reasoning, and geometric modeling." In this article, the authors describe how they adapted the typical skyscraper puzzle activity to become an amazing task in which students not only solved but also created their own skyscraper puzzles.

While the development of creativity, or creative thinking, in mathematics is considered important by many researchers, there are several difficulties in implementing creative tasks, especially before secondary school. Within the original context of a mathematical escape game, this paper reports two episodes exemplifying the difficulties met by sixth graders in abandoning stereotyped habits and acting with creative insubordination. While in the first episode, the puzzling task does not suffice to prompt creativity, in the second episode we show that an original solution may prompt unexpected mathematical contents. In conclusion, escape games could be useful to prompt creativity even in lower grades than it is now shown in the literature, but attention should be paid to the teacher's role in sustaining such creative activities.

Escape the Math Room is a fun, interactive, sequence of puzzles designed to encourage mathematical collaboration, team work, and ingenuity. Using advanced mathematical topics in an accessible way, Escape the Math Room appropriately challenges students ranging from high school to advanced undergraduate. The activity can be adjusted by adding or removing hints and explanations to accommodate the audience. This activity can be used on its own for a mathematical event, in class on a "free day" or as a team building exercise.

A digital escape room is a gamified activity in which students work collaboratively to solve a series of tasks or riddles within a certain amount of time. They are typically embedded in a story framework at the end of which students need to "escape" an imaginary scenario. Students explore the target culture while using the target language for solving puzzles with their peers. The versatility of digital escape rooms in language courses allows for implementation in online teaching, in F2F classrooms, and as homework assignments. Instructors can shape escape room tasks in many ways to help students practice relevant target language skills at all levels of instruction. Digital escape rooms are easy to set up by following the simple steps that are outlined in this article. Practical tips and student voices round out this article.

The aim of this study is to determine whether Escape Rooms can be used as an active methodological approach for the purpose of teaching mathematics. The research adapted a quantitative approach via an experimental design. Two different study groups were established, the first of which comprised the control group who were taught using conventional training methods, and the second consisted of the experimental group, who were taught using a novel approach incorporating an Escape Room activity. The participants included 80 students who were all attending secondary school within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The findings revealed how the activity involving the Escape Room led to a significant enhancement in the student's motivation, achievement and autonomy. The conclusion can be drawn that using an Escape Room in mathematics teaching can enhance learning achievement, anxiety, motivation and autonomy, with students' negative attitudes regarding mathematics learning considered as an important variable, particularly with respect to autonomy and motivation. Hence, Escape Rooms can potentially be more effective than conventional methods for teaching mathematics.

During dialogue, people reach mutual comprehension through the production of feedback markers such as "yeah" or "okay." The purpose of the current study was to determine if mental load affects feedback production, as there is currently no consensus as to how mental load constrains the way in which dialogue partners reach mutual comprehension. In two experiments, pairs of participants interacted in order to complete a collaborative puzzle game. We manipulated the amount of mental load experienced by each participant by giving them a series of digits to memorize (or no digits) before the beginning of the game. In Experiment 1, the participants were given no information about their partner's mental load. In Experiment 2, each participant was told whether their partner had received digits to memorize. We found that although some results were identical in both experiments (directors produced more words, longer utterances, and fewer feedback markers than matchers), the effect of mental load was different in both experiments. Indeed, whereas in Experiment 1, mental load mainly affected the number of words and speech turns produced, in Experiment 2, participants who had to follow the instructions of their partner and were under low mental load produced more feedback markers when their partner was under high mental load. Taken together, these results help disentangle the contribution of experienced and perceived mental load on collaboration in dialogue. They also highlight the importance of being explicitly aware of each other's mental load in interpersonal coordination.

Pattern recognition is an important skill in computational thinking. In this study, an equation puzzle game was developed by combining pattern recognition with algebraic reasoning, and scaffolding was designed to support learners' learning. Sixty participants were enrolled in this study, divided into a control group and an experimental group to compare the results and differences in game achievement, flow, anxiety, and motivation of participants with and without algebraic reasoning scaffolding. The results of the study showed that the participants in both groups had positive flow and motivation during the game, did not feel over-anxious, and there was no significant difference in the game achievement of the two groups. In addition, the game with the scaffolding may have the potential to make a positive correlation between game achievement and psychological status. The results of this study indicated that the game did not cause too much anxiety to the participants. The scaffolding-based design achieves the intended effect on the participants' assistance and facilitates the participants' engagement in pattern recognition problem solving. And as learners became more focused and engaged, they could also perform better in the game. This game mechanism can be used as a reference for designing pattern recognition games.

Completion of an escape room activity requires participants to work as a team to find hidden clues and solve challenging puzzles to escape before time expires. The use of escape rooms for active learning may produce a positive classroom environment by improving teamwork skills, encouraging engagement with course materials, fostering intellectual curiosity, and facilitating conceptual understanding beyond the prescribed procedure. An escape room was developed for the Mechanics of Materials course at the United States Military Academy. The escape room was designed based on a hypothetical theme to increase student motivation and curiosity. Students were required to complete five puzzles that involved navigating through underground steam tunnels to locate the boiler in the classroom building where their final examination would take place. This task was intended to force the cancellation of the examination. The five puzzles assessed the students' knowledge of torsional members, statically indeterminate axially loaded members, flexural members, stress transformation, strain transformation, and thin-walled pressure vessels. The escape room was piloted in five sections ranging from 15 to 18 students. Teams of five to six students completed the escape room activity. The escape room increased active participation and made the studepnts aware of the concepts they needed to focus on for the final examination. This case study includes details on the complete design of the escape room, including the problems presented, results of student teams, and student feedback.

Background: Teaching English as home language (EHL) could be a complicated process in a country like South Africa, where there are eleven official languages operating in a multicultural society. This requires capacitating teachers with appropriate and relevant strategies to strengthen their teaching, especially in the foundation phase. Aim: This paper examines the appropriateness and relevance of the extant strategies for teaching EHL comprehension skills to foundation phase learners from diverse language backgrounds. Setting: This study was conducted in King Cetshwayo District, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Methods: This was a qualitative case study involving four purposively selected grade one teachers in one urban primary in South Africa. Data were gathered through in-depth interviews, field observations and document analysis. Content analysis was used to analyse the data. Results: The two main findings were that (a) the teaching of EHL comprehensions skills lacked the appropriate strategies, and (b) the teachers faced several challenges--including operating under an unclear policy framework, the paucity of strategies in phonological awareness, and the lack of appropriate reflection images to which the learners could be exposed to improve their skills. Conclusion: The study concludes that adequate and regular professional teacher development programmes and activities are needed to enable teachers to do their work more effectively. Contribution: By closely and systematically examining the strategies used by teachers who were non-native English speakers, to teach EHL to leaners who were also non-native English speakers, this study has made important contributions to both attendant theory and classroom practice.

This research aims to support the "teaching of concepts" in the 3rd grade Life Science Course with activities. A quasi-experimental design (selective) with a pre-test and post-test control group, one of the quantitative research designs, was used in the research. Using songs, poems, rhymes, acrostics, stories, fairy tales, riddles/puzzles, animations, and traditional children's games, the experimental group's success in acquiring certain concepts from the third-grade life science course was enhanced by developing and implementing the above activities. Research data were collected with the "Concept Achievement Test" developed by the researcher by quantitative research data collection techniques. In the data analysis, arithmetic means were used to determine the academic success of the experimental and control groups. The Independent Sample t-Test was used for comparisons between groups. As a result of the research, there was a considerable achievement gap between the experimental and control groups, with the experimental group performing significantly better. According to these results, activities structured with songs, poems, nursery rhymes, acrostics, stories, fairy tales, puzzles/riddles, animations, and traditional children's games significantly impact student success in teaching concepts in third-grade elementary school biology classes. These activities apparently increase student success rates and are useful in this regard.

Students perceive crossword puzzles as enjoyable. In addition to students' perceptions, crossword puzzles actually improve knowledge retention. However, crossword puzzles increased exam scores for some students but not others. Recommendations have been made for students to create puzzles for their classmates to complete with the rationale that students are encouraged to research and understand the material in order to write meaningful clues for the puzzle. While students enjoy creating their own crossword puzzles, the association between students creating crossword puzzles and knowledge retention is unknown. The purpose of this project was to determine if creating crossword puzzles and completing peers' crossword puzzles were associated with improved knowledge retention indicated by higher scores on quizzes. Students in a research course from two institutions across three semesters had the option each week to upload a blank puzzle they created prior to completing each other's puzzles and taking a quiz. Quiz scores were compared between those who did versus did not create their own puzzles and complete their peers' puzzles. Results varied by institution and programs as well as the same program within the same institution but different semesters. Results highlight the importance of moving beyond student perceptions and towards assessing knowledge retention while taking into consideration institution, program, and semester.

Elementary students' early development of embedding and disembedding is complex and paves the way for later STEM learning. The purpose of this study was to clarify the factors that support students' embedding (i.e., overlapping shapes to form a new shape) and disembedding (i.e., identifying discrete shapes within another shape) through the use of filled shapes as opposed to shape frames. We recruited 26 Grade 1 students (~6-7 years old) and 23 Grade 3 students (~8-9 years old), asked them to work on two layered puzzle designs from the Color Code puzzle game, and interviewed them about their thinking processes. The first graders had higher success rates at fixing and embedding the tiles correctly, and students at both grade levels improved on the three-tile design when encountering it a second time about two months later. The four-tile design was more difficult, but students improved if they could identify a correct sub-structure of the design. Successful students used a combination of pictorial shape strategies and schematic location strategies, systematically testing tiles and checking how they could be embedded. The results suggest that helping students focus on sub-structures can promote their effective embedding.

The recent increase in the number of mathematics museums has given rise to a need for tools with which to design and assess mathematics educational proposals in this non-formal context. This study proposes the use of the van Hiele model, a benchmark in mathematics instruction, for the design of interactive museum models focusing on mathematics content in general. By way of example, the model is characterised for application to the Pythagorean theorem. An interactive module designed around the aforementioned characterisation for teaching the theorem at the Museo Didáctico e Interactivo de Ciencias [interactive science instruction museum, MUDIC] may serve as a reference for future interactive modules and workshops in museums dealing with any manner of mathematics content.

Nowadays, mathematics education providing challenging, interesting, interactive and technology-oriented learning experiences to students attracts attention both in research and practice. Among those experiences, competitions, due to their role of integrating the interest and desire of students to compete in education, challenging their potentials and facilitating their adaptation to daily life, are notable issues. In that sense, in the present study, it was aimed to explore the contest-related views of the students participating in a worldwide online mathematics competition and examine these experiences from the gifted education perspective. Based on this aim, 597 third to eleventh-grade students who took part in this international mathematics contest held in 2018- 2019 educational year from 28 different countries constituted the participants of the study. Students' ideas regarding their contest-related experiences were evaluated and then these ideas were examined on whether the contest serves the purpose of students needing extra materials/studies in mathematics, like gifted ones. Findings reflected that 15.7% of the students' views about such an international, digital math contest are unfavorable while 63.5% of them are favorable as well as 20.8% of them indicate their suggestions. Many of the students mentioned that they liked the challenge in the contest, thanked and found it as fun or awesome. It was seen that the contest mostly serves the students who request and desire challenge in their tasks. It was also concluded that the contest can attain the goals of mathematically gifted students searching for extra services in mathematics by providing them challenging problem-solving tasks or game-based interactive math activities in such a different, worldwide platform.

The Inclusive Assessment of Computational Thinking (CT) designed for accessibility and learner variability was studied in over 50 classes in US schools (grades 3-8). The validation studies of IACT sampled thousands of students to establish IACT's construct and concurrent validity as well as test-retest reliability. IACT items for each CT practice were correlated to examine construct validity. The CT pre-measures were correlated with post-measures to examine test-retest reliability. The CT post-measures were correlated with external measures to examine concurrent validity. IACT studies showed moderate evidence of test-retest reliability and concurrent validity and low to moderate evidence of construct validity for an aggregated measure of CT, but weaker validity and reliability evidence for individual CT practices. These findings were similar for students with and without IEPs or 504s. IACT is the first CT tool for grades 3-8 that has been validated in a large-scale study among students with and without IEPs or 504s. While improvements are needed for stronger validity, it is a promising start.

Spanish learners engaged in two-way interaction gap tasks where, through social interaction, they identified and defined low-frequency vocabulary. Participants (referred to as actors to differentiate them from task partners) completed two such tasks. Each time, they collaborated with different partners of varying degrees of Spanish proficiency and linguistic background, either an L2 learner or a heritage speaker (HS). The purpose of the study was thus to shed light on if and how features of the collaborating partners in mixed (HS-L2) and matched (L2-L2; HS-HS) partnerships impacted vocabulary learning. Through a mixed methods analysis of the data (perception measures and qualitative responses, plus pre- and post-vocabulary tests), it was deduced that learners' language proficiency level alone was not associated with differences in vocabulary gains. Rather, the nature of the partnerships among learners was more salient. In particular, learners in mixed partnerships had greater gains than those in matched partnerships. In addition, actors' perceptions of the experience of working with their partner had no discernible effect on vocabulary, except for HSs who increased less when working with partners' whose linguistic abilities they had rated as low. Pedagogical implications address learners' social interaction in mixed language classrooms.

Having students solve shape puzzles, such as with pattern blocks or tangrams, is a popular way to encourage students to compose shapes in different ways and talk about the effects of different compositions (Clements et al., 2004; Clements & Sarama, 2009; Sales, 1994), meeting Common Core geometry standards in kindergarten through second grade (i.e., K.G.4, 1.G.3, and 2.G.3; National Governors Association Center for Best Practices [NGA Center] & Council of Chief State School Officers [CCSSO], 2010). These geometric activities could also support more advanced spatial reasoning, as well as the development of a key mathematical practice, to make sense of problems and persevere in solving them (NGA & CCSSO, 2010; see also National Council of Teachers of Mathematics [NCTM], 2014), and a related computational thinking practice, debugging (e.g., Bofferding, Chen, et al., 2022; Bofferding, Kocabas, et al., 2022; Kocabas et al., 2022). This article presents the authors' work with first and third graders around tangram puzzles to highlight ways educators can support the mathematical practice of making sense of problems and persevering in solving them and the related computational thinking practice of debugging.

Vocabulary plays an important role in the Content-Based classroom, making EFL Students' science vocabulary knowledge critical to their content understanding. The purpose of this action research was to enhance students' science vocabulary knowledge of 9th grade students through science vocabulary crossword puzzle (SVCP) practices. The research group comprised 33 students of a science classroom using English as the medium of instruction in their second semester of the 2020 academic year at a large secondary school in Bangkok. The action research cyclical process of Kemmisand McTaggart (1981) was adopted through the steps of (1) Plan, (2) Act, (3) Observe and (4) Reflect. The innovation being introduced was a collection of science vocabulary crossword puzzle materials. The research instruments used were the science vocabulary knowledge test and the students' opinion questionnaire towards SVCP practices. The assessment of students' vocabulary knowledge was conducted before and after the delivery of crossword puzzle practices. The data was analyzed by a dependent sample t-test. The research findings were as follows: (1) After implementing SVCP practices, the mean of students' science vocabulary knowledge score had increased by a statistically significant 0.05. and (2) students had positive opinions toward the SVCP practices.

Educational escape rooms are immersive puzzle-based games that rely on teamwork skills in problem-solving, critical thinking, and communication. This paper describes the development of desert island themed escape rooms in a blended learning environment using physical and online puzzles that were hosted on Genially. The blended escape rooms were designed to introduce terms and concepts in pharmaceutical chemistry of drugs to first-year students while breaking the ice by fostering rapport, camaraderie, and teamwork at the beginning of their first-semester problem-based learning (PBL) session. Game designs, pitfalls, logistics, and costs involved in developing these blended escape rooms are described in detail. Student feedback indicated that the games were effective in reviewing information related to the PBL and helped them feel more confident before starting the PBL session.

We created the "3-dimensional synaptic puzzle" (3Dsp) as an educational resource for the physiology teaching of synaptic transmission (ST). In this study, we aimed to apply and evaluate the use of 3Dsp. For this, we divided 175 university students from public and private universities into two groups: (1) control (CT; students that were only exposed to traditional class or video lessons about ST), and; (2) test (3Dsp; students that were exposed to the 3Dsp practical class in addition to the traditional theoretical class). ST knowledge of students was evaluated before, immediately after, and 15 days after interventions. Additionally, students completed a questionnaire about their perception of teaching-learning methods used in physiology classes and their self-perception of engagement in the physiology content. The CT groups improved their ST knowledge score from pretest to immediate (P < 0.0001 for all groups) and late posttest (P < 0.0001 for all groups). 3Dsp groups also enhanced their score from pretest to immediate (P = 0.029 for public university students; P < 0.0001 for private university students) and late posttest (P < 0.0001 for all groups). We also observed improvement from the immediate to late posttest in the 3Dsp group from private universities (P < 0.001). Both private groups performed better in general ST and specific electrical synapse questions in the pretest and immediate posttest compared to the public CT group (P < 0.05 for all comparisons). More than 90% of the students from both universities affirmed that the 3Dsp contributed to their physiology comprehension and that they would recommend the use of the 3-D models to other teachers in their classes.

Meta-reasoning requires monitoring and controlling one's reasoning processes, and it often begins with an assessment of problem solvability. We explored whether "Judgments of Solvability (JOS)" for solvable and unsolvable anagrams discriminate and predict later problem-solving outcomes once anagrams solved during the JOS task are excluded. We also examined whether providing training via longer-duration anagrams improves JOS discrimination and predictiveness. In a two-phase paradigm, participants judged each anagram as "solvable," "not solvable," or "already solved" (S, NS, AS; JOS phase) then later attempted to solve the anagrams within 45 s (solving phase). Anagrams were presented in 4 blocks. In the "training groups," anagram duration started at 16 s and halved across blocks, whereas in the "no-training groups" anagram duration was always 2 s. Participants' S JOSs typically were discriminating after excluding anagrams that received AS JOSs, but training did not lead to better discrimination in the final block. Training improved AS JOS predictiveness, but not S JOS predictiveness. Thus, training increased solving during the JOS task rather than increasing JOS predictiveness. In Experiment 3 these findings replicated when both solvable and unsolvable anagrams were presented in the solving phase and no response deadline was set. Here, problem-solving outcomes and effort regulation (i.e., response times) were predicted by AS and NS JOSs, but not by S JOSs. Overall, although S JOSs were discriminating, they were not predictive of later problem solving or effort regulation--and this was true even after training with longer-duration anagrams.