ASSESSING THE CHEMISTRY EDUCATIONAL OUTCOMES USING DIGITAL ESCAPE ROOM. ANALYSIS OF GRAMMAR SCHOOL STUDENTS' ACHIEVEMENTS

Abstract

Evaluating students' achievements is one of the key aspects of education, providing insights into learning effectiveness. In this context, digital tools have emerged as innovative assessment methods, enhancing both students' engagement and the accuracy of knowledge evaluation. The aim of this research was to examine the level of grammar school students' chemistry educational outcomes, through an innovative and interactive teaching tool. In order to ascertain the level of accomplished learning outcomes, a digital escape room was designed as an assessment instrument, structured around four key educational outcomes. Instrument covered four topics: types of substances, atomic structure, dispersed systems and chemical reactions. The study included 139 first-year grammar school students enrolled in the department for natural sciences and mathematics. The findings indicate that students demonstrated a satisfactory level of knowledge only in the topic of atomic structure. In contrast, for the remaining three topics, barely over a half of the students provided correct answers. These results suggest the need for both improvement in students' knowledge and the refinement of instructional strategies in chemistry education. Given the specific sample and the custom-designed questionnaire, further research with a broader and more diverse sample is recommended, incorporating additional educational outcomes and qualitative methods to achieve a more comprehensive understanding of students’ chemistry achievements. Nonetheless, the newly developed digital escape room presents a promising and innovative approach to assessing students' learning within an interactive and engaging educational environment.