Dear colleagues,

I hope you have all had a good start into the new year, and I wish you a happy, healthy, and successful 2026.

I am very pleased to invite you to a guest lecture by Prof. Dr. Shirly Avargil, Professor of Chemistry Education at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology.
Prof. Avargil will be visiting us next week and is planning a longer research stay at TUM starting this summer.
She is very much looking forward to meeting colleagues and engaging in academic exchange in advance.

Date: Tuesday, January 13, 2026
Time: 10:00 a.m.
Location: Room 133

Title: Integrating Facilitation, Collaborative Regulation, and Formative Assessment in a Chemistry-Based Educational Escape Room

Everyone is very warmly invited to attend the lecture. In addition, individual meetings and informal discussions during the coming week can gladly be arranged.
Please feel free to contact me directly if you are interested.

I very much look forward to welcoming many of you to the lecture.

Best regards,
Jenna Koenen

Abstract

Educational escape rooms (ERs) are increasingly used in chemistry education as dynamic, collaborative learning environments that combine disciplinary problem-solving with authentic teamwork. This study integrates findings from three complementary investigations that examined ER-based learning from the perspectives of students, teachers, and facilitators, aiming to characterize instructional practices, collaborative regulation of learning, and teachers’ formative assessment (FA) knowledge within a chemistry-based ER.

First, an analysis of verbal facilitation moves used by eight ER facilitators—both teachers and onsite instructors—identified twelve types of guidance strategies. Questioning emerged as the most dominant tool, and chemistry-related guidance was the most frequent content focus. These findings highlight the unique instructional demands placed on ER facilitators, who must balance autonomy with productive progression.

Second, high-school students’ collaborative regulation during ER problem solving was examined through video observations and stimulated-recall discussions. Monitoring was the most prevalent regulatory phase, and socially shared regulation appeared primarily during orienting and monitoring. Students demonstrated chemical thinking across eight dimensions, with material identification and experimental skills most common, underscoring the role of ER tasks in promoting core chemistry practices.

Third, a professional development program involving 64 chemistry teachers explored teachers’ FA knowledge when interpreting students’ ER performance. Teachers emphasized 21st-century skills, chemical thinking, and affective aspects, identifying three characteristics of assessment knowledge.

Together, these integrated findings advance understanding of learning and assessment processes in chemistry-based ERs as collaborative and dynamic learning environments and offer practical implications for facilitating collaborative problem-solving in chemical education.