Abstract
The transformation of educational systems, driven by the need to foster 21st-century skills such as collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking, necessitates a reevaluation of classroom assessment methods. This study investigates the application of educational escape boxes for stealth assessment in primary education. By integrating storytelling, puzzles, and group collaboration, escape boxes create engaging and psychologically safe environments that promote active learning and natural peer interaction. The research was conducted through a systematic review and qualitative content analysis of 34 credible academic sources from reputable databases, selected via purposive sampling based on inclusion and exclusion criteria focusing on educational escape boxes and publications from 2013 to 2024. The data were analyzed in three stages using thematic analysis. The findings identified five key strategies: designing targeted puzzles for assessing cognitive skills, narrative scenarios for evaluating collaboration, time-bound challenges for measuring time management and focus, interactive feedback for assessing self-regulation, and game-based rewards for evaluating intrinsic motivation. Detailed explanations of these strategies were provided. Implementing educational escape boxes requires support from educational systems to enhance student engagement and motivation while facilitating authentic, unobtrusive assessment of essential skills.
Keywords: Educational Escape Box, Stealth Assessment, 21st-Century Skills, Active Learning, Primary Education.