The use of an educational escape room for learning Portuguese: a pedagogical experience with a 2nd grade class

Abstract

It is an unavoidable reality that the ways of learning how to learn have changed profoundly and teachers must keep up with these transformations. This article arises from the development of an educational practice by the author when teaching a Portuguese class, in which the active methodology of Gamification was used, in an Educational Escape Room (ERE) approach, using the Genially digital platform, in which students had the opportunity to play an active role in the construction of their learning. The students were from the 2nd Cycle of Basic Education (CEB) of a group of schools in the municipality of Porto. Following its implementation, a questionnaire was applied to the Mentimeter digital application to understand the impact and students' perceptions of using this pedagogical approach to learn grammar content in Portuguese. The qualitative data was analyzed using content analysis techniques and the quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics. The results show that the use of ERE not only challenges participants cognitively, but also involves and develops socio-emotional aspects that prepare them for the complex challenges that surround them.