Escape Rooms for Education: A Meta-analysis

Abstract

This meta-analysis aims to investigate the effectiveness of educational escape rooms in improving learning outcomes and fostering positive attitudes. Specifically, it seeks to examine their impact on the acquisition of content knowledge and the development of attitudes. Additionally, the study conduct a moderator analysis to explore how variables such as subject matter, types of escape rooms, and participants' age may influence these effects. After systematically screening the literature, 22 studies were deemed eligible for inclusion in the meta-analysis. The findings demonstrated a high effect size in knowledge gains and moderate effect size in attitude change, with 0.86 and 0.63, respectively. Interestingly, the moderator analysis did not uncover any statistically significant distinctions in effect sizes based on the three aforementioned moderators. In conclusion, this study affirms the effectiveness of educational escape rooms across a variety of academic disciplines and offers valuable insights for educators and practitioners interested in employing escape rooms as a means of educational innovation.