PEARL is a framework that trains Socratic tutoring agents using pedagogically aligned reinforcement learning. It introduces a controllable student simulator to model diverse cognitive states, a reward model that jointly evaluates pedagogical quality and correctness, and a stable multi‑objective RL approach to balance competing tutoring goals. Experiments demonstrate that PEARL competes with both open‑source tutoring systems and leading proprietary LLMs.
arXiv:2605.30051v2 Announce Type: replace Abstract: A key part of developing large language model (LLM)-powered, automated tutoring tools is student simulation, i.e., using LLMs to role-play as stude...
The paper introduces UCO, a multi‑turn interactive reinforcement learning method designed to improve adaptive teaching with large language models. UCO employs two reward functions—Progress Reward to gauge genuine cognitive advancement and Scaffold Reward to keep instruction within each student’s Zone of Proximal Development. Experiments on BigMath and MathTutorBench show UCO outperforming 11 baseline models and matching advanced closed‑source systems.
arXiv:2604. 04251v2 Announce Type: replace Abstract: Intelligent tutoring systems increasingly rely on reinforcement learning to personalise instruction, yet optimising for observable engagement signals can systematically decouple learner activity from genuine knowledge acquisition.
The paper introduces MENTOR, a multi‑agent framework that provides on‑policy pedagogical intervention to address zero‑reward collapse in reinforcement learning from verifiable rewards. MENTOR diagnoses failures in real time and generates targeted prompts to guide the learning agent, integrating seamlessly with existing policy optimization pipelines such as GRPO. Experiments on math and code generation tasks show that MENTOR significantly reduces collapse, achieving up to 78.3% relative gains on Llama‑3.2‑3B‑Instruct.
CoLearn is an interactive, agentic tutoring system that learns about each learner through a persistent memory of mastery and misconceptions, updated with a Bayesian Knowledge Tracing model that uses a large language model as an observation function. It generates personalized questions targeting the learner’s weakest topics and recurring misconceptions, and provides a live evidence view for progress visualization and blind A/B comparison. In blind A/B tests, learners preferred questions conditioned on this memory 68‑69% of the time, and simulations show the agent’s belief converges toward the learner’s true mastery.
arXiv:2610.08778v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Large language models (LLMs) have become increasingly capable problem solvers, but being able to solve a problem is not the same as being able to teach...
arXiv:2604. 26962v3 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: Education is one of the most promising real-world applications for Large Language Models (LLMs).
The paper presents a tutoring platform that combines a generative AI chatbot with a reinforcement learning algorithm to adaptively sequence practice problems for students learning Python. In a five‑month field study across ten high schools, the adaptive sequencing improved unassisted final exam performance by 0.15 standard deviations, with mediation analysis indicating that higher engagement drove the gains. The study demonstrates that signals from student‑chatbot interactions can be leveraged to personalize and optimize learning at scale.
arXiv:2606. 09887v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Reinforcement learning (RL) for large language models usually supervises reasoning with scalar outcome rewards, such as binary correctness.
arXiv:2609.01591v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: AI tutors are most useful when they adapt to each student's strengths, weaknesses, and preferred guidance, but evidence about which guidance works for...
arXiv:2603.11321v3 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: Reinforcement Learning with Verifiable Rewards improves reasoning in large language models, yet on-policy learning often suffers from cold-st...
arXiv:2610.23234v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: In a hierarchical multi-agent system, a Leader assigns tasks and subagents carry them out. Jointly training the Leader and the subagents is difficult b...