Faced with the new educational context that is emerging at this time in history, marked by a global pandemic, the learning and application of active methodologies where the teacher is not the only active agent in socio-educational activities is becoming key. Given this novel context, this chapter tries to outline how an escape room can be used as a strategy in the training of future teachers for the development of socio-emotional, sustainable, and multi-intelligence approaches, all currently necessary and essential elements of the professional development of this new generation of teachers in training. There is no doubt that the experience described in this chapter shows the applicability of these types of active methodologies in the classroom, since as defended in the document, it not only favours the motivation of students, but also the acquisition of certain skills and abilities, as well as the consolidation of theoretical content linked to the subject in which it is applied, thus favouring their future application when they become practising teachers.
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The 21st century, specifically at a time and within a context marked by a pandemic such as that caused by COVID-19, is being marked by the rethinking of educational models centred on the teaching-learning process. Future teachers are going to enter a new learning scenario marked by new teaching challenges. The certification of competencies related to the development of socio-emotional skills, multiple intelligences and key competences such as creativity, resilience, systemic and critical thinking or self-motivation, will be those that will mark the new “post-pandemic” teaching-learning models (Gómez, 2020).
In this new scenario, the use of methodological strategies where the teacher is not the only active agent in socio-educational activities, will make a difference in the teaching-learning process in the classrooms. The use of so-called active methodologies, challenge-based learning or game-based learning will make full sense in this new educational reality (García-Tudela, Sánchez-Vera and Solano-Fernández, 2020).
In general, the existing literature on educational experiences based on the application of an Escape Room in the university environment, are emerging and fundamentally occur in disciplines related to education, architecture and nursing (Adams, Burger, Crawford, y Setter, 2018; Moreno-Fuentes, 2019; Onecha, Sanz, y López, 2019; García-Tudela, Sánchez-Vera and Solano-Fernández, 2020). Their results reveal the strengths of these types of methodologies that revolve around an increase in the motivation of the participants in the activity; a methodology that favours the understanding of the content, the development of collaborative and leadership roles, the development of social and emotional competencies, and a framework for the generation of active knowledge (Adams, Burger, Crawford, y Setter, 2018; Moreno-Fuentes, 2019; Onecha, Sanz, y López, 2019; García-Tudela, Sánchez-Vera and Solano-Fernández, 2020), results that the experiences presented in this chapter intend to demonstrate, in addition to presenting the degree of satisfaction and feelings that this type of experience generates in students.
Therefore, to bring these types of innovative methodologies to the classroom, the training of future teachers and their active involvement in the process become key. These types of practical exercises allow them to reflect, from a practice perspective, on the potential of the use of active methodologies. This is the purpose of this chapter which aims to present this experience as a case that highlights how the use of an Escape Room game in teacher training can generate active and constructive learning processes based on problem solving skills, collaborative decision making, the development of leadership skills, creativity and the development of critical and systemic thinking through processes of reflection and self-awareness, all of which are key to their professional development, as is also evidenced by the current literature in this regard (Rouse, 2017; Neumann, Alvarado-Albertorio and Ramírez-Salgado, 2020).
However, and as indicated by García (2019), the development of these types of methodologies implies that they need to be designed in line with the profile of those students that are going to participate, and educators must explore the most appropriate tools to employ, with an understanding that great dedication is required on the part of the teacher for the design, setting, creation of assessments and challenges to create an immersive, playful and enriching experience. Therefore, the teachers must adopt an active attitude given the success of the Escape Room activity will largely depend on them. In this sense, a profound change in teaching methodologies used at university needs to occur, because in order to change practices of future teachers of the 21st century, it is necessary that there is a transformation of teaching practice now (López & Ortega, 2020).