It is quite evident that digital learning games are a dawning educational technology. The idea is to utilize the rich and appealing potential of modern computer games and their immense intrinsic motivational potential for educational purposes [ 1
]. The vision that at least a small portion of time spend on playing computer games can be used for learning is fascinating and desirable and, consequently, there is a rapidly increasing body of research and development in this field. The core strength of game-based learning is that such games—in a very natural way—are capable of making learning and knowledge appealing and important to the learner. Moreover, learning games serve the educational needs of the “Nintendo generation” and the “digital natives,” who grew up with “twitch speed” computer games, MTV, action movies, and the Internet [ 2
]. Authors like Mark Prensky argue that this context has emphasized certain cognitive aspects and deemphasized others, thus, the demands on education have changed [ 2
]. Although there is an ongoing debate about such ideas, computer games can be considered as powerful tools children and adolescents are familiar with.
We nevertheless have to note that the educational potential of computer games depends on the learner's motivation to play and, therefore, also to learn. A number of authors accomplished pioneering work in terms of selecting game genres and game design for successful learning games (e.g., [ 3
], [ 4
], [ 5
]). Additionally, it is of vital importance to tailor the concrete game play and gaming experience to the individual learners and to provide them with didactically meaningful and individualized guidance and support. Moreover, it is necessary to find an appropriate balance between gaming and learning and, maybe more importantly, between the challenges through the game and the abilities of the learner. The underlying idea is the following: If the player is bored by a too easy game play, or the challenges are too difficult to be accomplished, the player will quit playing the game very soon. This idea is common to most entertainment games. In a learning game, however, we need to establish the same principle from a learning perspective. Ideally, the increase in challenge should match individual abilities and individual learning progress. Essentially, this idea matches the foundations of adaptive or intelligent tutorial systems (cf. [ 6
An intelligent adaptation to preferences, motivational and emotional states, to learning progress, learning objectives and interests, and, above all, to the learner's abilities is crucial for being educationally effective and for retaining the user's motivation to play and to learn. This adaptation is not trivial, however. It requires a subtle balance between the challenges through the game and the abilities of the learner. Unfortunately, such balance is very fragile and, due to the coexistence of gaming and learning aspects, likely more complex than adaptation and personalization in conventional educational settings.
Research on adaptive and intelligent tutoring basically focussed on adaptive presentation and adaptive navigation support [ 7
]. The data basis for adaptation is most often querying the learner, asking for preferences, or providing typical test items for assessing the user's knowledge and learning progress. This strategy is not feasible in an immersive learning game, however. In contrast to conventional adaptive tutoring and knowledge testing, the adaptive knowledge assessment within such games is massively restricted by the game play, the game's narrative, and the game's progress. Typical methods of knowledge assessment would suddenly and seriously destroy immersion and, consequently, also the gaming and learning process. What is required is an assessment procedure that is strictly embedded in the game's story and covered by game play activities. In some sense, this is similar to work in the area of embedded assessment and student tracking [ 8
]. Those methods and theories, however, are predominantly driven by human (i.e., the teacher's) interpretation and evaluation of knowledge, understanding, and learning progress. In the present paper, we introduce a method for a “machine-driven” assessment of knowledge and learning progress in a noninvasive and embedded way. The core idea is to avoid any queries or interruptions but to monitor and interpret the learner's behavior in gaming situations. Subsequently, psychopedagogical interventions (e.g., providing the learner with appropriate guidance, feedback, cheer, or hints) can be triggered on the basis of probabilistic conclusions drawn by the system.
The present approach has been developed in two projects focusing on game-based learning: ELEKTRA ( www.elektra-project.org) and 80Days ( www.eightydays.eu). Both projects have the ambitious and visionary goal to utilize the advantages of computer games and their design fundamentals for educational purposes, and to address the disadvantages of game-based learning as far as possible. A group of interdisciplinary European partners contribute to the development of a sound methodology for designing educational games and to the development of a comprehensive game demonstrator based on a state-of-the-art 3D adventure game. To illustrate our approach, we refer to a concrete example from the ELEKTRA demonstrator game, which is a typical first person adventure game (cf. Fig. 1
). The aim is to save Lisa and her uncle Leo, a researcher, who have been kidnapped by the evil Black Galileans. During this journey, the learner needs to acquire specific concepts from a eighth grade physics course. Learning occurs in different ways, ranging from hearing or reading to freely experimenting. After finding a magic hour glass, the learner is in company of the ghost of Galileo Galilei ( Fig. 1
a), who is the learner's (hidden) teacher.
Fig. 1. Screenshots from the ELEKTRA demonstrator game on physics. (a) The ghost of Galileo Galilei, who is the learner's (hidden) teacher; (b) the slope device.
To learn about the straight propagation of light, for instance, the learner experiments with a torch and blinds on a table in the basement of uncle Leo's villa, or with a device that allows balls of different materials rolling down a slope ( Fig. 1
b). These skills are important to understand that light propagates straight, as opposed to the curved trajectories of other objects. This, in turn, is important for the game play, because to continue in the game, the learner has to unlock a door by exactly hitting a small light sensor with a laser beam. The experimenting is accompanied and observed by Galileo who, if necessary, can also provide feedback or guidance. The goal of using the slope device is to make the various balls (of wood, plastic, hollow, or solid iron, etc.) fall into a given hole. As shown in Fig. 1
b, the learner can adjust a magnet and a fan to alter the trajectories of the balls. On the contrary, a laser beam cannot be influenced by such external forces.
The important point is that by continuously interpreting the learner's actions in terms of his or her knowledge, the system gathers information about the learner's learning progress. If, as an example, the learner continuously tries to affect the trajectory of a plastic ball by increasing the magnetic force, the system eventually concludes that the learner lacks the knowledge that plastic is not affected by magnetic force. If, at the same time, the fan is adjusted properly, the system can also conclude that the related knowledge is available. Since, usually, a single observation cannot provide reliable evidence, we are relying on a probabilistic approach, which means that with each observation we are updating the probabilities that certain knowledge is available.
Although this is a rather simple example, it illustrates the underlying ideas of our assessment method. The following parts of the manuscript will specify these ideas in more detail, including the basics definitions and the mathematical formalism of the assessment procedure. Subsequently, we will illustrate the approach with an exact walk-through, using the well known and suitably limited problem space of the Tower of Hanoi. Finally, we will provide a conclusion on the hand of more realistic examples and give an outlook to future work.
Imagine a certain situation in a digital learning game with an educational intention, for example the aforementioned slope device or the experimenting with a torch and blinds. To describe such a virtual scenario in a formal way, let
be the set of (educationally relevant) and manipulable objects, no matter if torch, fan, slider control, or even space ship. These objects can be used to define all possible gaming situations a user can be confronted with. For simplicity of notation, we assume that
. Furthermore, for
be the set of all possible “states” of the
. These states can be of quite different character, like for instance, a multidimensional vector describing position and orientation of an object in the (virtual) space, or simply two values (“on” and “off”) for a switch. This allows us to describe each gaming situation as an
. For the sake of simplicity, let us agree on the following convention: If
, then the
th object does not appear in the situation. If, on the other hand,
, then the
appears in the gaming situation and can be manipulated by the user. It is important to note here that not every
represents a meaningful gaming situation. If, for instance, the aim of the game is to teach optics (e.g., by conducting virtual experiments like, for instance, in the ELEKTRA demonstrator game), then it would be pointless to present two blinds, a mounting rail, and a screen, but no torch. In order to exclude such meaningless situations, let
be the set of all “meaningful” gaming situations.
Furthermore, a problem situation
is assumed to be a tuple
with the following interpretations in mind: 1)
is the initial state, a user is confronted with; and 2)
is the set of solution states. If one of the solution states in
is accomplished by the user, then the task is completed successfully. Finally, the set of different problem situations (tasks) is denoted by
To master a certain problem situation, a person can perform different actions to modify the gaming situation. In the ELEKTRA blinds problem, for example, the learner might turn on the torch, vary the torch's orientation, or move a blind. With the slope device, they can change the position of the sliders for the strength of the fan or the magnet (see Fig. 1
b). Additionally, we assume that any problem can be solved in a finite number of steps. Note that, within the context of game-based learning, this is quite plausible to assume since, in general, a person can only proceed with the next level of difficulty, if all the problems of a given level are successfully solved. This general idea is formalized as follows: Let
be a nonempty set of actions a user can perform. The element
stands for that action that quits the current task. Furthermore, let
denote a “compatibility relation” with the following interpretation in mind:
if and only if action
is performable in the gaming situation
. Finally, let
be a “transition function” in the following sense: If a user performs action
in the gaming situation
, then the gaming situation
results. In the following, let us consider a fixed problem situation
. Then, a finite sequence
is called a solution process
if and only if the following conditions are satisfied:
Note that, if
, then the task is completed successfully. If, on the other hand,
, then the user quits the task before completion.
To interpret the learner's actions in terms of his or her knowledge, we have to link the observed actions to the underlying skills. There are a lot of definitions of the terms “knowledge,” “competence,” or “skill.” As a working definition, we refer to “skill” as an atomic and well-defined entity of knowledge or ability, which ideally can be formalized as a proposition of two related concepts. This view is in accordance with definitions articulated by [ 9
] and [ 10
]. Although it is a rather low-level and limited view, it is suitable, even necessary, for the aim of a fine-grained knowledge assessment. This, in turn, is a prerequisite for providing the learner with fine-grained guidance and feedback.
To proceed successfully through the game, we assume that a set
(in the following also referred to as elementary competencies
) is required. Following the assumptions of Knowledge Space Theory
(e.g., [ 11
], [ 12
], or [ 13
]) and Competence-based Knowledge Space Theory
(e.g., [ 9
], [ 14
], [ 15
], [ 16
], or [ 17
]), we assume prerequisite relations between the skills in
. This means that some skills are prerequisites to other skills. To give a very simple example, to “know that the distance between blind aperture and light source is in inverse proportion to the diameter of the resulting light spot,” it is necessary to “know what light is” or to “know what an inverse proportion is.” For a more realistic example, which is adopted from the 80Days project on game-based learning in geography, see Fig. 5
According to these relationships, not every collection of skills provides a well-defined “competence state.” For this reason, let
be a family of subsets of
, containing at least
, and the empty set
. The elements in
are referred to as competence states
, and the tuple
is denoted as competence structure
(cf. [ 17
], [ 18
According to Competence-based Knowledge Space Theory, we assume that at a certain point in time, any person is in a specific, yet not directly observable, competence state in
. The present approach attempts to specify the learner's competence state by interpreting his or her actions. Formally, we assume that for any problem solution process
, there exists a conditional probability distribution
with the following interpretation in mind:
is the conditional probability that a person has all the elementary competencies in
but none of the competencies in
, given that the solution process
has been observed.
In the following, let us consider a fixed problem situation
, and an associated problem solution process
. Then, without loss of generality, we can assume that, for a fixed number
. Furthermore, let us assume that, subsequent to action
, the user performs action
in the gaming situation
. If the resulting problem solution process is denoted as
then we are confronted with the problem of computing the conditional probability distribution
from the given probability distribution
and the observation that the user performed action
To solve this problem, the multiplicative updating rule by Falmagne and Doignon [ 19
] is adapted to our needs:
This means that we have to assign to each possible action an interpretation with respect to required and/or missing skills, i.e., if a learner performs a certain action we can assume that s/he has certain required skills while some others are apparently missing (otherwise we would have observed a better suited action). In the ELEKTRA slope device, e.g., observing a learner selecting full fan speed for a plastic ball rolling down the slope would show that this learner knows that the plastic ball's flight is influenced by the fan. However, s/he apparently does not know that a plastic ball is very light and, therefore, a much lower fan speed is needed.
To formalize this general idea, let 1
denote those elementary competencies in
which are necessary to understand and solve the problem situation
. Furthermore, let us assume two “skill assignment” functions
with the following interpretations in mind: If action
is performed in the gaming situation
, then we can surmise that the user has all the elementary competencies in
(“supported skills”), but none of the competencies in
(“unsupported skills”). Furthermore, to compute
from the given probability distribution
, let us fix two parameters
. Then, for a competence state
with the parameter function
It is important to note here that
is set to 1 if
. Furthermore, if
, then we postulate that
is the initial distribution at the beginning of the task, that is, before action
is observed. Note that, at the beginning of the game (i.e., prior to the first problem situation), either the initial distribution is estimated from an entry test, or the competence states are assumed to be uniformly distributed:
Alternatively, let us assume that the user has already solved some of the problem situations in
. If the final problem solution process is denoted as
, then the conditional probability distribution
is used as initial distribution for the next problem situation
4. Partitioning Competence Structures
In realistic applications, we are confronted with the problem that, in general, the number of competence states is huge, and that, consequently, the probability updates (in the sense of (1) and (3)) cannot be realized in real time as it is necessary to keep an undisturbed game experience. If, as an example, we have a relatively small set
of 50 skills, then the resulting competence structure
can have up to
different competence states. If, in order to consider a more realistic example, the number of elementary competencies in
is doubled, then there can be up to
competence states, which is far beyond the number of stars in the observable universe (about 3 to
). In order to reduce the computational demand of the updating process, the present paper proposes a modified update by restricting the underlying competence structure
to a smaller set of elementary competencies.To this end, let us consider the set
of those elementary competencies in
which are necessary to understand and solve the problem situation
(cf. Section 3). Then, a trivial consideration shows that the competence states in
can be restricted to the elementary competencies in
: If we define
then the tuple
is referred to as
-restricted competence structure. Furthermore, in order to restrict the conditional probability distributions
-restricted competence structure
Then, a mathematical argument shows that
are probability distributions on
. For a formal proof, see [ 20
Furthermore, by applying the multiplicative updating rule (1) to the restricted probability distribution
, we obtain that
with the parameter function
defined according to (2). It is noteworthy and of central importance for the rest of this paper that an update of the (unrestricted) probability distribution
can be accomplished by updating the restricted distribution
. The following theorem specifies the relationship between the (unrestricted) distribution
and its restricted counterpart
Theorem 1. For every competence state , and every problem solution process ,
For a mathematical proof of Theorem 1, see [ 20
]. It is important to note that the initial distributions
are given by definition (cf. Section 3). Furthermore, we have to note that, in general, the restricted competence structure
is much smaller than the original structure
. If, for instance,
, then the number of competence states in
is bounded by
Even if the number of elementary competencies in
is increased to 15, then the maximum number of competence states is relatively small (as compared to the original competence structure):
This shows that, in general, an update of the restricted probability distribution
is less CPU-intensive than a (direct) update of the unrestricted distribution
Thus, in order to reduce the computational load of the updating process, the following strategy is advisable:
5. The Adaptive Problem Selection Process
Let us assume that a user has successfully completed a given problem situation
. Furthermore, let
denote the observed problem solution process. Then, the problem is to tailor the next problem situation to the competence state of the user. To this end, let us assume an “assignment-function”
with the following interpretation in mind: If a person is in competence state
, then one of the problem situations in
is presented to the user. In order to ensure that there is an adequate problem situation for every competence state, we assume that for every
A problem arises from the fact that the given probability distribution
provides only probabilistic information on the user's competence state. To solve this problem, we combine the probability distribution
with the (deterministic) assignment function
in a straightforward way:
Finally, if at the outset, no information on the competence state of a user is available, then one of the problem situations in
is chosen at random. If, on the other hand, an initial distribution on
is derived from an entry test, then the initial distribution is combined with the deterministic assignment function
as stated above.
The following section provides a hypothetical application to the Tower of Hanoi, which should illustrate the basic concepts of the presented model. It is important to note, however, that this example is not representative for realistic applications in that the number of competencies and problem situations is quite small. Despite its limited applicability to realistic digital games, it has the didactic advantage that all the computations can easily be carried out, even without any programming skills while a real example from a game-based learning application like ELEKTRA would be too large to be presented in a paper in such detail.
6. The Tower of Hanoi: A Walk-Through Demonstration
To provide a walk-through demonstration of the outlined approach, we refer to the problem-oriented game of the Tower of Hanoi, invented by the French mathematician Edouard Lucas in 1883. We exemplify our approach with the simple problem scenario of the Tower of Hanoi for several reasons: On the one hand, this “game” offers an illustrative field of application since it provides a well known and easy to understand problem scenario. On the other hand, the Tower of Hanoi perfectly matches the nature of many game-based problem scenarios and can easily be extended toward more complex and difficult settings. Finally, this type of game covers the very nature of our approach, that is, melding competence structures and problem spaces to enable the system to assess and—to a certain degree—understand a learner's behavior in the game.
The Tower of Hanoi consists of three pegs in a row, and a stack of disks of differing size. At the start, all the disks are on the first peg, from the largest disk at the bottom to the smallest disk at the top. A player is only allowed to move one disk at a time from one peg to another, and at no time may a larger disk be placed on a smaller disk. The aim of the puzzle is to move the disks from the starting peg 1 to the destination peg 3. In the following, we concentrate on three different puzzles, referred to as
(three-disk puzzle), and
(four-disk puzzle), respectively. Consequently,
In diagnosing the competence state of a person, we assume that a person can have one or more of the following elementary competencies in
To demonstrate the basic concepts of the presented model, we assume that the ability to solve problem
(i.e., the elementary competency
) can be surmised from the ability to reduce problem
(i.e., the elementary competency
). Similarly, we assume that the elementary competency
can be surmised from the elementary competency
. By these assumptions, we derive at the following four competence states:
(cf. Fig. 2
Fig. 2. Graphical representation of the competence structure .
To make sure that the selected problem situations are tailored to the competence state of a user, we specify the following assignment function
Note that, by these definitions, a user is either confronted with the most complex problem situation he or she is capable of solving, or the next more complicated one. Additionally, let us assume a player, who is in the (unknown) competence state
Since, at the outset, no information on the user's competence state is available, a problem situation is chosen at random. Assume that, at first, the player is confronted with the three-disk puzzle:
Furthermore, the initial distribution
is assumed to be the uniform distribution:
Then, according to (5), the restricted initial distribution on
is equal to
In order to demonstrate the multiplicative updating rule, let us assume that the player solves the three-disk puzzle in seven steps (the minimal number of steps to solve
) (cf. Fig. 3
Fig. 3. The solution behavior of a fictive person dealing with the three-disk puzzle .
provides evidence in favor of the elementary competency
. Furthermore, according to the competence structure
, the elementary competency
is a prerequisite for
, that is, a person who has the elementary competency
has also the elementary competency
. Thus, we conclude that
. Finally, to update the restricted initial distribution
. Then, according to (2),
Thus, (6) yields
which provides the following update of the initial distribution
provides evidence in favor of the elementary competencies
. Consequently, it is
, which shows that the restricted probability distribution
can be updated as follows:
(cf. (6)). Furthermore, if the multiplicative updating rule is consecutively applied to Actions
, then the following conditional probabilities result:
Finally, in order to tailor the next problem situation to the competence state of the user, we have to specify the unrestricted distribution
. This can be done according to Theorem 1:
If we assume that, based on these probabilities, the competence state
is selected (cf. Section 5), then the player is confronted with the four-disk puzzle
. Note that, by definition,
, the restricted competence structure
is equal to the original structure:
Different from the previously discussed three-disk problem, let us now assume that the player is on the wrong track (cf. Fig. 4
Fig. 4. The solution behavior of a fictive person dealing with the four-disk puzzle .
indicates that the user is incapable of reducing the four-disk problem
to the three-disk problem
. Therefore, the definition of
(cf. (2)). Thus, by taking into account that the initial distribution
is equal to
, the multiplicative updating rule yields
(cf. (3)). Finally, let us consider Action
: similar to Action
, we conclude that
. Consequently, we obtain strong evidence that the learner is in the competence state
7. Conclusion and Outlook
The present paper provides a theoretical model to assess knowledge and learning progress in an embedded, noninvasive way. The approach was developed in the context of digital learning games, within which conventional assessment procedures are not appropriate or possible. The outlined approach is based on a mathematical framework describing a person's problem-solving behavior in an explorative and problem-oriented gaming situation.
A gaming situation is assumed to be a tuple
is the initial state a user is confronted with, and
is the set of possible solution states. If one of the solution states in
is accomplished by the user, then the task is completed successfully. One might, as an example, think of a virtual room with a table, a torch, blinds, a screen, and a mounting rail in it. The learner's task might be to reduce the torch's light cone into a narrow beam of light on the screen, using the mounting rail and the two blinds. To master a problem situation
, a person can perform different actions to modify the gaming situation. The learner might, for instance, turn on the torch, vary the torch's orientation, or move a blind. The central idea of the presented model is to interpret these actions regarding its correctness or appropriateness for accomplishing the task (e.g., narrowing the light cone). To formalize this general idea, we introduced the conditional probability
that a person is in the competence state
given that the solution process
has been observed.
Additionally, we adapted the multiplicative updating rule [ 19
] to our needs: Let us assume that for a fixed solution process
, the conditional probability distribution
is given. Then, the multiplicative updating rule formalizes the following intuitive idea: If action
in gaming situation
provides evidence in favor of the elementary competency
, then increase the probability of all competence states containing
, and decrease the probability of all competence states not containing
. Similarly, if action
in gaming situation
provides evidence against the elementary competency
, then decrease the probability of all competence states containing
, and increase the probability of all competence states not containing
. For a formalization of this general idea see (1). It is important to note here that a single observation might not be considered “meaningful.” However, with an increasing number of observations, and therefore also an increasing number of probability updates, the picture is gradually becoming clearer.
In realistic applications, we might be confronted with very large competence structures with millions of competence states, which might lead to the problem that the probability updates cannot be realized at runtime. To address this problem, we have introduced restricted probability distributions defined on a restricted set of elementary competencies (cf. (4) and (5)). The main result of the paper shows that an update of the (unrestricted) probability distribution
can be accomplished by updating the restricted analogue
(cf. Theorem 1). Consequently, in order to reduce the computational load of the updating process, the following strategies are advisable: 1) Within a given problem situation
, the restricted
is updated according to (6). 2) The unrestricted
probabilities are updated only after task completion. This is done according to Theorem 1. 3) The final probability distribution
is used as initial distribution for the next problem situation
A major advantage of the outlined approach is that it can be easily integrated in educational applications like, for instance, digital learning games, for which conventional knowledge testing is not suitable or possible. The mathematical framework of our model enables the system to monitor the learner's behavior and draw probabilistic conclusions about the user's competence state.
The above-mentioned examples—the slope device or the Tower of Hanoi—might be considered as simplifications. However, we want to emphasize that those examples are typical for the explorative, problem-oriented characteristic of (learning) games. It is important to note that our approach is not restricted to these examples, but is universally applicable to all kinds of actions or observable behavior. In principle, the approach can be applied to all kinds of (educational) games that on the one hand have an identifiable goal and on the other hand that allow a quantification of the approach to this goal. Of course, games that are based on the solution of more or less complex problems, which, in turn, enables the formalization of nontrivial problem spaces, are particularly suitable for the presented approach. Examples might be task-oriented adventure games, simulation games, or strategic games. In the 80Days demonstrator game, for instance, the learner is flying with a space ship over the Earth aiming at discovering certain places (cf. Fig. 5
). In this example, the flying directions provide information about the learner's geography skills. A concrete application beyond the gaming context, namely a training based on a haptic simulator device in the medical domain (MedCAP; www.medcap.eu), was described by [ 21
Fig. 5. (a) A screenshot from the 80Days demonstrator game on geography. The learner's task is to discover major European capitals by flying with a space ship. (b) The prerequisite structure for the underlying skill set.
The outlined approach was developed in the area of game-based learning and is a core component of microadaptivity, that is, the system's capability to interpret a learner's actions with respect to his or her knowledge and to respond adaptively in real time and on an individual basis [ 1
]. The aim is to provide the learner with appropriate and tailored guidance, support, information, and feedback. The concept was developed in the context of the ELEKTRA project and is taken up and extended in the course of the direct successor 80Days. While ELEKTRA predominantly focussed on assessment and interventions in an educational sense, 80Days incorporates broader aspects such as the assessment and adaptation in terms of motivational states as well as implementing aspects of adaptive, interactive storytelling. In the context of both projects, we developed demonstrator applications (cf. [ 22
], [ 23
]), which were empirically evaluated. First, results indicate the usefulness and supportive quality of the microadaptive approach in general, as well as the validity of the noninvasive assessment in comparison to conventional knowledge tests [ 24
]. The conceptual work, however, continues and will extend the “multidimensional vector approach” presented in this paper.
Future work will focus, in the first instance, on simulation studies aiming at the precision and efficiency of the multiplicative updating rule. Moreover, we will address the problem of further reducing the computational demands of the updating process, as well as the integration of further “assessment axes,” like for instance, motivational or emotional states of the learner. Finally, enabling the computer system to draw autonomously meaningful conclusions from a learner's problem-solving behavior in the virtual environment of games requires a categorization of actions, problem states, or competence states. Although this categorization limits the system's understanding of what is potentially going on, it does not limit the degrees of freedom in terms of gaming and learning. Future work will address this limitation by taking up ideas of emergent game design. 2
The authors are grateful to Eric Hamilton, Wolfgang Nejdl, and three anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper. The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Community's Sixth and Seventh Framework Programmes (FP6/2003-2006 and FP7/2007-2013) under Grant Agreement No. IST-027986 (ELEKTRA project) and ICT-215918 (80Days project).
T. Augustin is with Joanneum Research, Institute of Biomedicine and Health Sciences, Elisabethstrasse 11a, 8010 Graz, Austria.
C. Hockemeyer, M.D. Kickmeier-Rust, and D. Albert are with the Department of Psychology, University of Graz, Universitätsplatz 2/III, 8010 Graz, Austria. E-mail: email@example.com.
Manuscript received 15 Jan. 2009; revised 1 Sept. 2009; accepted 27 July 2010; published online 12 Aug. 2010.
For information on obtaining reprints of this article, please send e-mail to: firstname.lastname@example.org, and reference IEEECS Log Number TLT-2009-01-0006.
Digital Object Identifier no. 10.1109/TLT.2010.21.
1. In real applications, it is important to specify the problem situation in such a way that the “restricted” skill set is much smaller than the overall skill set (cf. Section 4).
2. Emergent behavior occurs due to a nontrivial interaction of system components with each other and with the player, which gives rise to behavior that was not specifically intended by the developer [ 25].
received a diploma in mathematics and the PhD degree in psychology from the University of Regensburg, Germany, in 1999 and 2002, respectively. In 2002, he started working as a university assistant in the Department of Psychology, University of Graz, Austria. Currently, he is working at the Institute of Biomedicine and Health Sciences at Joanneum Research, Graz. His main research interests are mathematical models of human behavior, experimental psychology, and applied statistics.
received a diploma in computer science from the Braunschweig University of Technology, Germany, in 1993. He is currently working as project manager and researcher for the Department of Psychology at the University of Graz, Germany, and for the Knowledge Management Institute at the Graz University of Technology. His research focus is on efficient procedures for personalized training and assessment of competences. He is a member of the IEEE, the IEEE Computer Society, and the IEEE Education Society.
Michael D. Kickmeier-Rust
received a diploma in psychology from the University of Graz, Austria, in 2005. Currently, he is working as a project coordinator in the Department of Psychology at the University of Graz. His research and development focus is on personalization in technology-enhanced learning, especially in the area of game-based learning.
received a diploma in psychology from the University of Göttingen, Germany, in 1966 and the DSc degree in psychology from the University of Marburg, Germany, in 1972. Since 1993, he has been working as a professor of psychology and head of the Cognitive Science Section in the Department of Psychology at the University of Graz, Austria. Since 2008, he has also worked as a key researcher in the Know-Center, Austria's competence center for knowledge management, and since 2009, as a senior scientist in the Knowledge Management Institute at the Graz University of Technology. His actual focus in research and development is on knowledge and competence structures, their applications, and empirical research.


Tweens are at a great age to begin learning how to become critical consumers. They have the ability to think about things from someone else’s perspective and they’re growing in their desire to become more independent thinkers. Both of these are important skills in learning to think critically.
To be a critical consumer, tweens need to understand that advertisements and marketing are about selling them something. Even their favorite TV shows and computer games are filled with persuasive messages to either keep them interested in that particular form of entertainment or to get them interested in something else that the same company is promoting. Any form of media is also promoting the worldview of the creator. This doesn’t make marketers and media producers evil, but it does mean that whenever we’re engaging with their content, we have to understand that they are trying to persuade us to adopt their point of view and value system.
A good way to help your tween understand this is to talk about specific examples in their own life when they have tried to get you, a sibling, or a friend to do something. Ask them questions like how they went about convincing that person, what arguments they used, did they appeal to their emotions? Once you’ve been able to identify a few specific strategies that they’ve used to try to get someone to do something, then you can start drawing parallels with how marketers work. Marketers want us to buy their product or watch their show. How do they go about convincing us that we should? They try to appeal to our desires to be cool, to look good, to have friends or do fun things. Ready to try it?
Watch this cereal commercial together and ask the following questions:
1. What words do we hear? What are the people in the ads, the songs, and the words on the screen saying? Jot down the words and put a check by them if you hear them more than one time.
2. What are we seeing? What visual images are being used to sell the product? What activities are the people/cartoons/animals on screen doing?
3. What is the theme of the advertisements for this product? What is the overall message that a child would walk away with? Come up with one sentence that starts with “If I buy _____________, then I will ______________”
This activity gives you and your tween the chance to critically deconstruct an advertisement. Instead of just mindlessly watching, they now have the skills to critique. And, once you’ve done this a few times with your tween, they’ll begin to think of media and marketing from a new perspective. They will be empowered to really think about the meaning behind messages sent by advertisers. This is the heart of being a critical consumer!
It’s also important to help your child to learn to deconstruct and critique the media that they consumer, from TV shows to movies to songs. Like commercials, media is created from a certain worldview, not in a vacuum. The person who created our child’s favorite TV show may have a vastly different worldview than you and your family. It’s fine to explore those worldviews, as long as both you and your child understand that this is what you’re doing. For example, the gender stereotypes that are presented in entertainment targeting your tween may promote very different ideas about what it means to be a boy or girl than you do in your own home. It’s important for your tween to be able to notice that, think about it critically, and then make a decision about what they themselves believe.
In an activity similar to the one that we discussed above, you can watch a TV show or movie with your child and practice being critical consumers together.
1. First, ask yourself a few questions about the target audience: Who does this message come from? Who is the target audience according to the developer? It’s important to really understand whom the target audience is in order to determine if the product/program is appropriate for you or your child.
2. What message is being sent through words, music, images and stories? What about the unspoken messages? Are there impressions that you get very clearly whether they are or are not spoken? In many TV shows aimed at tweens there is an unspoken message that parents are stupid or sometimes basically absent. How are different types of people depicted? Are there messages about how to get what you want? How to be in relationship with others? How to deal with friendship problems?
3. What values are presented? What positive and negative messages come through? How do these compare to your own value system?
Another fun activity that can really open both your and your child’s eyes to the messages being sent through different media and marketing campaigns is making word clouds. You and your child can use Wordle to create word clouds from groups of words that you gather from different advertisements, TV shows, music, etc. Here are some specific ways that you might use word clouds with your tween:
1. Work with your tween to develop a word cloud of the characteristics that they think are most valuable in a girl or boy and compare it to those they see presented in media portrayals. For example, after you help them make theirs, you might look through magazines together, watch advertisements, or TV shows and collect words and themes that you both agree are being used to promote value in a person.
2. Watch a TV show or movie that you and your tween are considering and record the words or themes that you notice. Use Wordle to develop a picture of the overwhelming themes within that show. This will help you decide if the overall worldview presented by the program is one that you want to support
3. Record the words used in music that you and/or your tween consider sexualizing or negative to make a word cloud and compare it to one for music that you both find positive. The visual of the word cloud really allows you to compare and contrast the different messages being sent.
If you’re comfortable with it, it’s okay for your tween to engage with media that promotes a different value system than your own. What’s important is that both of you are able to think and talk about it together. This is a good way to jumpstart a conversation about why your family has certain values in the first place.
These activities will give you a good opportunity to start practicing being a critical consumer of media and marketing with your child. This will lead both of you to feel more empowered to choose your response to media and marketing.
Is your family’s budget tight? Do vacations seem like a luxury of the past? If so, consider planning a “staycation” – a vacation at home or close to home. Being a tourist with your preteen is a great way to rediscover your city. What better place to start than Chinatown?
Start your day with a Chinatown photo scavenger hunt. Challenge another family for extra fun. The family with the most photos of found objects wins the hunt, and the losers buy dinner! Your scavenger hunt list might include:
- A Hello Kitty t-shirt (a popular Japanese character – but should be easy to find in Chinatown)
- Live eels/turtles/crabs (eek!)
- A golden cat figurine (a symbol of good luck)
- Green guava candy (delicious!)
- Dragon fruit (hint: it’s hot pink with green tips)
- A Chinese magazine (bonus points if you recognize any Chinese celebrities)
- Dried squid (a pantry essential)
- A hand-painted scroll (China has a rich tradition of symbolism – locate a scroll with a black dragon for luck and wealth)
- A kung-fu video (an ancient meditation and art)
- The number 8 (on a storefront – 8 is lucky in Chinese culture)
- A bamboo shoot (boil or braise for a stir-fry or a hearty side dish)
- A historical landmark (bonus points if you uncover some of the history behind it)
Exploring the winding streets of Manhattan’s Chinatown is a vibrant and delicious journey. Chinatown is bustling with crowds and energy and is well suited for tweens, who find the liveliness exciting. If it’s food you’re interested in, you’re in the right place. Within Chinatown is an array of seemingly endless markets and restaurants. If you and your tween are game for something different, try the beef tripe or oxtail – many restaurants and street vendors offer these Chinatown menu staples.
There are a few streets (and treats) that shouldn’t be missed.
- Mulberry Street is home to Lung Moon Bakery (83 Mulberry, South of Canal); with classic Chinatown treats such as elegant moon cakes, buns, and sticky rice balls that are too good to pass up.
- Bayard Street will bring out the kid in you. At UiUi Bubble Tea (49 Bayard) Homer Simpson greets you with a smile, and at The Original Chinatown Ice Cream Factory (65 Bayard) flavors like Red Bean, Lychee and Peanut Butter and Jelly will pique your youthful curiosity. Find a street vendor for some fish balls – a favorite snack of many Chinatown kids.
- Mott Street is the soul of Chinatown, with amazing restaurants, bakeries and shops, all worth exploring. If you’re in the market for a set of chopsticks with a back-story, then you can’t miss Yunhong Chopsticks (50 Mott). Off Mott Street is Pell Street, and off Pell Street is the narrow Doyers Street…a secret passageway that will lead you to Chatham Square, the heart of Chinatown.
- From Chatham Square, wander along East Broadway and check out the offerings at the East Broadway Mall. If you are on the scavenger hunt, you’ll find many of the items here under one roof.
- Don’t miss Aji Ichiban (23 East Broadway; another location at 37 Mott Street) for endless snacking fun. From wasabi peas to spicy dried shrimp, try as many new munchies as you dare.
- Dim sum, Chinese cuisine with a wide range of light dishes served with tea, is a good option for sampling. There are great dim sum places all over Chinatown; try The Golden Unicorn (18 East Broadway) where most of the dim sum dishes and desserts are $3.75 each.
- When you reach Allen Street coming from East Broadway, head North to make your way back to Canal, but before you do, take a Lower East Side detour over to Hester Street (off of Allen; North of Canal) and head East to 63 Hester Street. There you’ll find The Sweet Life, an adorable candy store with a whimsical Wonka-like feel. So if your tween wasn’t thrilled by the assortment at Aji Ichiban, some familiar treats from The Sweet Life might be a nice break.
- When you finally make your way back onto Canal Street, take one last detour up Bowery, where you can pick up a carbon steel wok at one of the many restaurant supply stores, and then go East on Grand Street. Turn South on Elizabeth Street to find one of Chinatown’s hidden gastronomic gems, Malaysian Beef Jerky (95 Elizabeth).
- One last stop at the new Hong Kong Supermarket on the corner of Hester and Elizabeth, for some fresh fish to take home for dinner, concludes your Far East Side adventure.
To get to Chinatown, take the N, R, W, J, M, Z or 6 trains to Canal Street, and head East on Canal to Mulberry Street. On your way, you can stop at the intersection of Canal and Baxter, cross over to the big information booth in the middle of Canal to pick up a map for more highlights of Chinatown.
Newbery Award winning author, Gail Carson Levine, talked to TweenParent.com about her experiences as a young adult novelist and shared advice for aspiring writers. As well as penning Ella Enchanted, Fairest, Dave at Night, The Wish, The Two Princesses of Bamarre and the Princess Tales among others, Gail also wrote Writing Magic: Creating Stories That Fly to help young authors avoid writer’s block and develop a process. If your tween is interested in creative writing or is a fan of Gail’s books, we highly recommend sharing this article with them.
How did you start writing? Did you always want to be a writer?
I wrote as a kid, but I never wanted to be a writer particularly. I had been drawing and painting for years and loved that. And, I meditate. One time when I was meditating, I started thinking, “Gee, Gail, you love stories – you read all the time. How come you never tell yourself a story?” While I should have been saying my mantra to myself, I started telling myself a story. It turned out to be an art appreciation book for kids with reproductions of famous artworks and pencil drawings that I did. I tried to get it published and was rejected wholesale.
That book led me to a class on writing and illustrating for kids, and when I went into it I thought that I would be more interested in illustrating. But I found that I was much more interested in writing and that I didn’t like the illustrating at all. I had always been the hardest on myself when I drew and painted. I am not hard on myself when I write. I like what I write, so it is a much happier process.
That’s how I got started. And then everything I wrote was rejected for nine years.
Wow, that must have been difficult. What was the process of rejection like? Were you able to glean any positive lessons from rejection?
I belonged to critique groups and took classes, and my teachers and fellow students liked my work. It was a happy time for me – I felt supported, so rejections didn’t sting as much as they might have in other circumstances. Some of the rejections were actually quite encouraging, when editors would write little notes to me that they liked my work. Form rejection letters give you no help and are just discouraging, but if an editor writes you a note, it means they believe in you even if they happen to be rejecting that specific piece of yours.
Is rejection something you still have to deal with today?
I just got rejected from an adult poetry class! Getting rejected is not easy no matter when it happens or what circumstance it is.
What is your favorite part about being a writer?
I love it all. I love having written. Sometimes I love writing. I love to revise. Revising is my favorite part of writing. I love working with kids and seeing kids over a real span of time. I am very interested in seeing who they turn into. Getting to know these great kids has been a joy.
Is there anything that the kids you work with have taught you, or ways that working with kids has enriched your writing life?
One of the things that has helped me a lot, and that kind of stunned me when I started teaching kids is how they just leap into writing. I give the kids a writing prompt and they just start. They don’t agonize over it. I find this very freeing.
Some of the kids I’ve known for ten years. I’ve gotten to watch them grow up and fulfill themselves, which is very rewarding. Besides, working with kids is just fun!
What is your most important piece of advice for young writers?
Save everything you write. I think kids abandon stories all the time. They start stories and get frustrated or get a different, better idea. I think that it is more worthwhile to stick with a story and revise it and try to finish it than to abandon ship. Revision, for any writer, is the name of the game.
On your blog you said that revision is your favorite part of the writing process. Do you revise as you go along, or do you write the first draft straight through and then revise later?
My method isn’t methodical. Many, many, many, and more scenes that I start with vanish and new ones take their place. I write notes first. Sometimes I write some of the scene in my notes. Then I copy what I’ve written into my manuscript, which is just story, not a mix of story and notes. If I’m beginning a book, I write notes and then, when I figure out my beginning, I write it in a separate document (the clean page). This isn’t particularly the right way; it’s just my method.
What is your daily writing routine like?
I don’t have much of a daily schedule, to be honest. I have a computer on the kitchen table and I always write while I eat breakfast. But my daily schedule varies depending on what I’m working on at the time. Today, for example, I worked on a speech I am giving in a couple weeks. I am also taking physical therapy because I strained my neck, so I did those exercises. Then I ate lunch, and then I revised my latest manuscript, a fantasy mystery for kids, until I started talking to you! So it varies every day. The point for me is I have to get the work done, and so I get it done.
Your books are so imaginative. How do you come up with your ideas?
I don’t think of myself as someone who has a lot of ideas. I have to work for them. When I get to a point in the story where I don’t know what’s going to happen next, I list all the possibilities that I can think of. Eventually, something pops up. I write a lot of notes – through writing notes, ideas come. When I’m really in the grove, I’m thinking about what I’m doing a great deal. Taking a shower is a good place to get ideas; doing something very repetitive and boring is a good place to get ideas. Your mind is freed through repetition, so new ideas tend to pop up.
What are some of your favorite books for tweens?
The Moorchild by Eloise McGraw
Make Lemonade by Virginia Euwer Wolff
The Birthday Room by Kevin Henkes
The Ear, The Eye and The Arm by Nancy Farmer
What was it like to see Ella Enchanted made into a movie?
It was great! It brought the book to a lot of new readers, which was very fun. I also got to go to Ireland to watch three days of the shooting! The movie is very different from the book. I had very little to do with making of the movie, though they did talk to me a bit and listened to things I said, about the dialogue for example.
What are some of your favorite moments in your books?
In The Wish, I loved the parts with the dogs – I am especially proud of the dialogue. In Ella Enchanted, I loved the letters between Prince Char and Ella. In Princess Tales, the humor – I always am delighted when I write something funny. And Dave at Night is a very important book to me. The character of Solly in Dave at Night is one of my favorite characters. (Editor’s note: Dave at Night is based upon the childhood experiences of Gail’s father spent in the Hebrew Orphan Asylum in New York City; it was named an ALA Notable Book and Best Book for Young Adults.)
Thank you, Gail! It was a pleasure to speak with you.
For more advice from Gail Carson Levine about creative writing, you can visit her blog or you can contact Tony Hirt at HarperCollins Children’s Books (email@example.com) to arrange for her to speak at an event.
Tweens and teens will be flocking to the theater this weekend to see the movie New Moon. The Twilight Saga books, the movie is based on is the second, have become a national phenomenon making fans of preteen girls to women in their fifties. So, what is all the fuss about? Kristine Gasbarre, author and celebrity editor of LimeLife.com says, “The relationship between Bella and Edward is the epitome of young romance. They ignore all obstacles in their way because their longing for each other is so overpowering.” Add Edward’s masculine strength and his desire to protect Bella and you have the formula for a thrilling romance.
Many girls fantasize about being completely desired and adored in a romantic relationship. One of the most compelling aspects of Twilight is that Edward cannot fight his urge to be with Bella even though he knows that as a vampire everything about their relationship is unnatural and fraught with risk. According to Sari Cooper, a New York City Sex Therapist, this type of fantasy is normal. “The experience of being desired is a huge turn on for women and Edward can’t get enough of Bella.”
However, understanding the difference between fantasy and reality is key. Sari points out that the wonderful thing about daydreaming is that the person fantasizing is in control, which makes it safe. “No one is going to get hurt.” In Twilight, Edward saves Bella from a gang of men about to attack her. He is so furious that it takes all of his will power not to avenge Bella by killing them. In a book this may seem romantic, but in real life it would be terrifying. Sari recommends that parents not only read the books or see the movies, but also ask their daughters how they would feel if the situations described happened in reality. “It’s exciting to watch someone get rescued in a movie, but we would not necessarily want to experience it in real life.”
Critics of the Twilight series have raised concerns about girls confusing the fantasies of romantic love in the books with the realities of abusive relationships. Gina R. Dalfonzo writes in her essay for National Review:
He [Edward] spies on Bella while she sleeps, eavesdrops on her conversations, reads her classmates’ minds, forges her signature, tries to dictate her choice of friends, encourages her to deceive her father, disables her truck, has his family hold her at his house against her will, and enters her house when no one’s there — all because, he explains, he wants her to be safe. He warns Bella how dangerous he is, but gets “furious” at anyone else who tries to warn or protect her. He even drags her to the prom against her expressed wishes. He is, in short, one of modern fiction’s best candidates for a restraining order.
By romanticizing Edward and Bella’s relationship, girls run the risk of not recognizing signs of abuse in boyfriends once they start dating. The Twilight Saga offers an important opportunity for parents to have an ongoing dialogue about the series with their daughters. In an age-appropriate way, parents can discuss thepositive and negative attributes in different types of romantic relationships.
So, what can parents do to help their daughter’s develop healthy relationships? Rachel Simmons, author of The Curse of the Good Girl, says that girls first need to focus on establishing positive relationships with each other. “Girls first learn how to be emotionally intimate with their friends. Through their experience of love between best friends, girls can experience profoundly attached intimacy. Other than the lack of physical attraction, the mechanics are no different.”
Friendships give girls the opportunity to develop positive communication skills, have respectful disagreements, be interdependent, and share mutual empathy. Girls need to gain an understanding of themselves, their feelings and their boundaries in order to achieve these skills. To have a positive sense of self, girls need both self-respect and the respect of their friends. They need believe that their needs and interests are integral to the friendship. This involves the ability to be simultaneously proactive about their wishes while also respecting their friends’ boundaries.
Inevitably, girls will “break up” with some of their friends. Rachel Simmons points out, “Heartbreak happens in all friendships. When a girl looses her best friend she is entitled to be devastated, write bad poetry, listen to sad music, and eat ice cream. After awhile it is important for her to get back into the world and “friend-date” again.” By realizing that they have the resilience to get through the ups and downs of these early relationships, girls gain the confidence they need to expect appropriate boundaries in their romantic lives. By asserting their needs in both friendship and love, girls are more likely to find someone who fulfills their inner desire to be adored for their true selves.


(June 19, 1861 – December 30, 1896), was a Filipino polymath, patriot and the most prominent advocate for reform in the Philippines during the Spanish colonial era. He is regarded as the foremost Filipino patriot and is listed as one of the national heroes of the Philippines by the National Heroes Committee. His execution day in 1896, now known as Rizal Day, is a national holiday in the Philippines. Rizal was born to a rich family in Calamba, Laguna and was the seventh of eleven children. He attended the Ateneo Municipal de Manila, earning a Bachelor of Arts, and enrolled in medicine at the University of Santo Tomas. He continued his studies at the Universidad Central de Madrid in Madrid, Spain, earning the degree of Licentiate in Medicine. He also attended the University of Paris and earned a second doctorate at the University of Heidelberg. Rizal was a polyglot, conversant in twenty-two languages. He was a prolific poet, essayist, diarist, correspondent, and novelist whose most famous works were his two novels, Noli me Tangere and El filibusterismo.
These social commentaries on Spanish rule formed the nucleus of literature that inspired peaceful reformists and armed revolutionaries alike. As a political figure, José Rizal was the founder of La Liga Filipina, a civic organization that subsequently gave birth to the Katipunanled by Andrés Bonifacio, which would start the Philippine Revolution against Spain, leading to the foundation of the First Philippine Republic under Emilio Aguinaldo. He was a proponent of achieving Philippine self-government peacefully through institutional reform rather than through violent revolution, although he would support “violent means” as a last resort. Rizal believed that the only justification for national liberation and self-government is the restoration of the dignity of the people, saying “Why independence, if the slaves of today will be the tyrants of tomorrow?” The general consensus among Rizal scholars is that his execution by the Spanish government ignited the Philippine Revolution. Family of Jose Rizal:
He was born to Francisco Engracio Rizal Mercado (1818–1897) and Teodora Alonzo Realonda y Quintos, who were both prosperous farmers that were granted lease of a hacienda and an accompanying rice farm by the Dominicans. Rizal was the seventh child of their eleven children namely: Saturina (Neneng) (1850–1913), Paciano (1851–1930), Narcisa (Sisa) (1852–1939), Lucia (1857–1919), María (Biang) (1859–1945), José Protacio (1861–1896), Concepción (Concha) (1862–1865), Josefa (Panggoy) (1865–1945), Trinidad (1868–1951) and Soledad (Choleng) (1870–1929). José Rizal also had Spanish and Japanese ancestors. His grandfather and father of Teodora was a half Spaniard engineer named Lorenzo Alberto Alonzo. His maternal great-great-grandfather was Eugenio Ursua, a descendant of Japanese settlers. Lam-co changed his surname to the Spanish “Mercado” (market), possibly to indicate their Chinese merchant roots.
In 1849, Governor-General of the Philippines Narciso Clavería, issued a Decree by which native Filipino and immigrant families were to adopt Spanish surnames from a list of Spanish family names (the Chino Mestizos were allowed to hold on to their Chinese surnames). José’s father Francisco Mercado now  adopted the surname “Rizal” (originally Ricial, the green of young growth or green fields), which was suggested to him by a provincial governor, or as José had described him, “a friend of the family”. However, the name change caused confusion in the business affairs of Francisco, most of which were begun under the old name. After a few years, he settled on the name “Rizal Mercado” as a compromise, but usually just used the original surname “Mercado”. Education
Jose Rizal as a student at the University of Santo Tomas.
Rizal first studied under Justiniano Aquino Cruz in Biñan, Laguna before he was sent to Manila. As to his father’s request, he took the entrance examination in Colegio de San Juan de Letran and studied there for almost three months. The Dominican friars asked him to transfer to another school due to his radical and bold questions. He then enrolled at the Ateneo Municipal de Manila and graduated as one of the nine students in his class declared sobresaliente or outstanding. He continued his education at the Ateneo Municipal de Manila to obtain a land surveyor and assessor’s degree, and at the same time at theUniversity of Santo Tomas where he did take up a preparatory course in law. Upon learning that his mother was going blind, he decided to study medicine specializing in ophthalmology at the University of Santo Tomas Faculty of Medicine and Surgery.
Without his parents’ knowledge and consent, but secretly supported by his brother Paciano, he traveled alone to Madrid, Spain in May 1882 and studied medicine at the Universidad Central de Madrid where he earned the degree, Licentiate in Medicine. His education continued at theUniversity of Paris and the University of Heidelberg where he earned a second doctorate. In Berlin he was inducted as a member of the Berlin Ethnological Society and the Berlin Anthropological Society under the patronage of the famous pathologist Rudolf Virchow. Following custom, he delivered an address in German in April 1887 before the Anthropological Society on the orthography and structure of the Tagalog language. He left Heidelberg a poem, “A las flores del Heidelberg,” which was both an evocation and a prayer for the welfare of his native land and the unification of common values between East and West. At Heidelberg, the 25-year-old Rizal, completed in 1887 his eye specialization under the renowned professor, Otto Becker. There he used the newly invented ophthalmoscope (invented by Hermann von Helmholtz) to later operate on his own mother’s eye.
From Heidelberg, Rizal wrote his parents: “I spend half of the day in the study of German and the other half, in the diseases of the eye. Twice a week, I go to the bierbrauerie, or beerhall, to speak German with my student friends.” He lived in a Karlstraße boarding house then moved to Ludwigsplatz. There, he met Reverend Karl Ullmer and stayed with them in Wilhelmsfeld, where he wrote the last few chapters of “Noli Me Tangere” Rizal’s multifacetedness was described by his German friend, Dr. Adolf Meyer, as “stupendous.” Documented studies show him to be apolymath with the ability to master various skills and subjects. He was an ophthalmologist, sculptor, painter, educator, farmer, historian, playwright and journalist. Besides poetry and creative writing, he dabbled, with varying degrees of expertise, in architecture, cartography, economics, ethnology, anthropology, sociology, dramatics, martial arts, fencing and pistol shooting.
He was also a Freemason, joining Acacia Lodge No. 9 during his time in Spain and becoming a Master Mason in 1884. José Rizal’s life is one of the most documented of the 19th century due to the vast and extensive records written by and about him. Almost everything in his short life is recorded somewhere, being himself a regular diarist and prolific letter writer, much of the material having survived. His biographers, however, have faced difficulty in translating his writings because of Rizal’s habit of switching from one language to another. They drew largely from his travel diaries with their insights of a young Asian encountering the West for the first time. They included his later trips, home and back again to Europe through Japan and the United States, and, finally, through his self-imposed exile in Hong Kong. During December 1891 to June 1892, Rizal lived with his family in Number 2 of Rednaxela Terrace, Midlevels, and Hong Kong Island. Rizal used 5 D’Aguilar Street, Central district, Hong Kong Island as his ophthalmologist clinic from 2 pm to 6 pm. This period of his education and his frenetic pursuit of life included his recorded affections.
Historians write of Rizal’s “dozen women”, even if only nine were identified. They were Gertrude Becket of Chalcot Crescent (London), wealthy and high-minded Nelly Boustead of the English and Iberian merchant family, last descendant of a noble Japanese family Seiko Usui (affectionately called O-Sei-san), his earlier friendship with Segunda Katigbak, Leonor Valenzuela, and eight-year romantic relationship with a distant cousin, Leonor Rivera. Shortly after he graduated from the Ateneo Municipal de Manila (now Ateneo de Manila University), Rizal (who was then 16 years old) and a friend, Mariano Katigbak, came to visit Rizal’s maternal grandmother in Tondo, Manila. Mariano brought along his sister, Segunda Katigbak, a 14-year old Batangueña from Lipa, Batangas. It was the first time they met and Rizal described Segunda as “She was rather short, with eyes that were eloquent and ardent at times and languid at others, rosy–cheeked, with an enchanting and provocative smile that revealed very beautiful teeth, and the air of a sylph; her entire self diffused a mysterious charm.” His grandmother’s guests were mostly college students and they knew that Rizal had skills in painting.
They suggested that Rizal should make a portrait of Segunda. He complied reluctantly and made a pencil sketch of her. Unfortunately, Katigbak was engaged to Manuel Luz. Leonor Rivera is thought to be the inspiration for the character of Maria Clara in Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo. Rivera and Rizal first met in Manila when Rivera was only 13 years old. When Rizal left for Europe on May 3, 1882, Rivera was 15 years of age. Their correspondence began when Rizal left a poem for Rivera saying farewell. Their letters to each other slowly became romantic. The correspondence between Rivera and Rizal kept Rizal focused on his studies in Europe. They employed codes in their letters because Rivera’s mother did not favor Rizal as a suitor for Rivera. A letter from Mariano Katigbak dated June 27, 1884 referred to Rivera as Rizal’s “betrothed”. Katigbak described Rivera as having been greatly affected by Rizal’s departure, frequently sick because of insomnia. When Rizal returned to the Philippines on August 5, 1887, Rivera was no longer living in Manila because she and her family had moved back to Dagupan, Pangasinan.
Rizal wanted to meet Rivera and Rivera also wanted to see Rizal, but both were prohibited by their fathers. Rizal was forbidden by his father Francisco Mercado in order to avoid putting the Rivera family in danger because at the time Rizal was already labeled by the Spaniards as a filibustero or subversive because of the contents of his novel Noli Me Tangere. Rizal wanted to marry Rivera while he was still in the Philippines because of Rivera’s uncomplaining fidelity. Rizal asked permission from his father one more time before his second departure from the Philippines. The meeting never happened. In 1888, Rizal stopped receiving letters from Rivera for a year, although Rizal kept sending letters to Rivera. The reason for Rivera’s year of silence was the connivance between Rivera’s mother and the Englishman named Henry Kipping, a railway engineer who fell in love with Rivera and was favored by Rivera’s mother. The news of Leonor Rivera’s marriage to Kipping devastated Rizal. His European friends kept almost everything he gave them, including doodlings on pieces of paper. In the home of a Spanish liberal, Pedro Ortiga y Pérez, he left an impression that was to be remembered by his daughter, Consuelo.
In her diary, she wrote of a day Rizal spent there and regaled them with his wit, social graces, and sleight-of-hand tricks. In London, during his research on Morga’s writings, he became a regular guest in the home of Dr. Reinhold Rost of the British Museum who referred to him as “a gem of a man.” The family of Karl Ullmer, pastor of Wilhelmsfeld, and the Blumentritts saved even buttonholes and napkins with sketches and notes. They were ultimately bequeathed to the Rizal family to form a treasure trove of memorabilia. In 1890, Rizal, 29, left Paris for Brussels as he was preparing for the publication of his annotations of Antonio de Morga’s “Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas.” There, he lived in the boarding house of the two Jacoby sisters, Catherina and Suzanna who had a niece also named Suzanna (“Thil”), 16. Historian Gregorio F. Zaide states that Rizal had “his romance with Suzanne Jacoby, 45, the petite niece of his landladies.” Belgian Pros Slachmuylders, however, believed that Rizal had a romance with the niece, Suzanna Thil, in 1890.
Rizal’s Brussels’ stay was short-lived, as he moved to Madrid, leaving the young Suzanna a box of chocolates. Suzanna replied in French: “After your departure, I did not take the chocolate. The box is still intact as on the day of your parting. Don’t delay too long writing us because I wear out the soles of my for running to the mailbox to see if there is a letter from you. There will never be any home in which you are so loved as in that in Brussels, so, you little bad boy, hurry up and come back…” (Oct. 1, 1890 letter). Slachmuylders’ group in 2007 unveiled a historical marker commemorating Rizal’s stay in Brussels in 1890. The content of Rizal’s writings changed considerably in his two most famous novels, Noli me Tangere and El Filibusterismo. These writings angered both the Spanish colonial elite and many educated Filipinos due to their insulting symbolism. They are critical of Spanish friars and the power of the Church. Rizal’s friend Ferdinand Blumentritt, anAustria-Hungary born professor and historian wrote that the novel’s characters were drawn from real life and that every episode can be repeated on any day in the Philippines.
Blumentritt was the grandson of the Imperial Treasurer at Vienna in the former Austro-Hungarian Empire and a staunch defender of the Catholic faith. This did not dissuade him however from writing the preface of El filibusterismo after he had translated Noli me Tangere into German. Noli was published in Berlin (1887) and Fili in Ghent (1891) with funds borrowed largely from Rizal’s friends. As Blumentritt had warned, these led to Rizal’s prosecution as the inciter of revolution and eventually, to a military trial and execution. The intended consequence of teaching the natives where they stood brought about an adverse reaction, as the Philippine Revolution of 1896 took off virulently thereafter.
As leader of the reform movement of Filipino students in Spain, he contributed essays, allegories, poems, and editorials to the Spanish newspaper La Solidaridad in Barcelona (in this case Rizal used a pen name, Dimasalang). The core of his writings centers on liberal and progressive ideas of individual rights and freedom; specifically, rights for the Filipino people. He shared the same sentiments with members of the movement: that the Philippines is battling, in Rizal’s own words, “a double-faced Goliath”–corrupt friars and bad government. His commentaries reiterate the following agenda: •That the Philippines be a province of Spain
•Representation in the Cortes
•Filipino priests instead of Spanish friars–Augustinians, Dominicans, and Franciscans–in parishes and remote sitios
•Freedom of assembly and speech
•Equal rights before the law (for both Filipino and Spanish plaintiffs) The colonial authorities in the Philippines did not favor these reforms even if they were more openly endorsed by Spanish intellectuals like Morayta, Unamuno, Pi y Margall, and others. Persecution
Upon his return to Manila in 1892, he formed a civic movement called La Liga Filipina. The league advocated these moderate social reforms through legal means, but was disbanded by the governor. At that time, he had already been declared an enemy of the state by the Spanish authorities because of the publication of his novel. Wenceslao Retana, a political commentator in Spain, had slighted Rizal by writing an insulting article in “La Epoca”, a newspaper in Madrid, in which he insinuated that the family and friends of Rizal were ejected from their lands in Calamba for not having paid their due rents. Upon reading the article, Rizal sent immediately a representative to challenge Retana to a duel. Retana published a public apology and later became one of Rizal’s biggest admirers, writing Rizal’s most important biography. The painful memories of his mother’s treatment (when he was ten) at the hands of the civil authorities explain his reaction to Retana.
The incident stemmed from an accusation that Rizal’s mother, Teodora, tried to poison the wife of a cousin when she claimed she only intervened to help. With the approval of the Church prelates, and without a hearing, she was ordered to prison in Santa Cruz in 1871. She was made to walk the ten miles (16 km) from Calamba. She was released after two-and-a-half years of appeals to the highest court. In 1887 Rizal wrote a petition on behalf of the tenants of Calamba, and later that year led them to speak out against the friars’ attempts to raise rent. They initiated a litigation, which resulted in the Dominicans evicting them from their homes, including the Rizal family. General Valeriano Weyler had the buildings on the farm torn down. Rizal was implicated in the activities of the nascent rebellion and in July 1892, was deported to Dapitan in the province of Zamboanga, a peninsula ofMindanao. There he built a school, a hospital and a water supply system,
and taught and engaged in farming and horticulture.
Abaca, then the vital raw material for cordage and which Rizal and his students planted in the thousands, was a memorial. The boys’ school, which taught in Spanish, and included English as a foreign language (considered a prescient if unusual option then) was conceived by Rizal and antedated Gordonstoun with its aims of inculcating resourcefulness and self sufficiency in young men.They would later enjoy successful lives as farmers and honest government officials. One, a Muslim, became a datu, and another, José Aseniero, who was with Rizal throughout the life of the school, became Governor of Zamboanga. In Dapitan, the Jesuits mounted a great effort to secure his return to the fold led by Fray Sánchez, his former professor, who failed in his mission. Fray Pastells, a prominent member of the Order, resumed the task. In a letter to Pastells, Rizal sails close to the ecumenism familiar to us today. – “We are entirely in accord in admitting the existence of God. How can I doubt his when I am convinced of mine? Who so recognizes the effect recognizes the cause.
To doubt God is to doubt one’s own conscience, and in consequence, it would be to doubt everything; and then what is life for? Now then, myfaith in God, if the result of ratiocination may be called faith, is blind, blind in the sense of knowing nothing. I neither believe nor disbelieve the qualities, which many attribute to him; before theologians’ and philosophers’ definitions and lucubrations of this ineffable and inscrutable being I find myself smiling. Faced with the conviction of seeing myself confronting the supreme Problem, which confused voices seek to explain to me, I cannot but reply: ‘It could be; but the God that I foreknow is far more grand, far more good: Plus Supra!…I believe in (revelation); but not in revelation or revelations which each religion or religions claim to possess. Examining them impartially, comparing them and scrutinizing them, one cannot avoid discerning the human ‘fingernail’ and the stamp of the time in which they were written… No, let us not make God in our image, poor inhabitants that we are of a distant planet lost in infinite space.
However, brilliant and sublime our intelligence may be, it is scarcely more than a small spark which shines and in an instant is extinguished, and it alone can give us no idea of that blaze, that conflagration, that ocean of light. I believe in revelation, but in that living revelation which surrounds us on every side, in that voice, mighty, eternal, unceasing, incorruptible, clear, distinct, universal as is the being from whom it proceeds, in that revelation which speaks to us and penetrates us from the moment we are born until we die. What books can better reveal to us the goodness of God, his love, his providence, his eternity, his glory, his wisdom? ‘The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork’.”
His best friend, professor Ferdinand Blumentritt, kept him in touch with European friends and fellow-scientists who wrote a stream of letters, which arrived in, Dutch, French, German and English and which baffled the censors, delaying their transmittal. Those four years of his exile coincided with the development of the Philippine Revolution from inception and to its final breakout, which, from the viewpoint of the court, which was to try him, suggested his complicity in it. He condemned the uprising, although all the members of the Katipunan had made him their honorary president and had used his name as a cry for war, unity, and liberty. Josephine Bracken
Josephine Bracken was Rizal’scommon-law wife whom he reportedly married shortly before before his execution In February 1895, Rizal, 33, became acquainted with an Irish woman from Hong Kong named Josephine Bracken when she accompanied her blind adoptive father, George Taufer, to have his eye checked by Rizal. After frequent visits, Rizal and Bracken soon fell in love with each other and later applied for marriage, but because of his bad reputation from his own writings and political stance, the local priest Father Obach, only agreed to the hold the ceremony if Rizal could get permission from the Bishop of Cebu.
He was unable to obtain an ecclesiastical marriage because he would not return to Catholicism. After accompanying his father to Manila on his return to Hong Kong and before heading back to Dapitan to live with Rizal, she introduced herself to members of his family in Manila. His mother suggested a civil marriage that believed it as a lesser sacrament, and would be less sinful to Rizal’s conscience than making any sort of political retraction in order to gain permission from the Bishop. He, nonetheless, considered Josephine to be his wife and the couple lived together in Talisay in Dapitan. The couple had a child who was born prematurely, Francísco Rizal y Bracken, who died after only a few hours.