activity
20242026
most citedTraining LLM-based Tutors to Improve Student Learning Outcomes in Dialogues

21 citations · 26 across the 16 of their papers we have counts for

collaborators

16 papers

cs.DL2026

When AI Writes, Who Gets Cited? Evidence of Citation Monoculture Across Language Models

Sina Alemohammad, Denghui Zhang, Bolong Tang +5

As language models move from drafting prose to running literature-search agents with tool calls, fabricated references are becoming easier to catch and constrain. The harder failur…

cs.CL2026

Not All Synthetic Data Is Yours to Learn From

Sina Alemohammad, Li Chen, Richard G. Baraniuk +1

Can a language model improve from plain text sampled from itself, with no prompts, no teacher, no verifier, and no reward model? Yes, but only when the synthetic corpus is compatib…

cs.LG2026

Stable and Privacy-Preserving Synthetic Educational Data with Empirical Marginals: A Copula-Based Approach

Gabriel Diaz Ramos, Lorenzo Luzi, Debshila Basu Mallick +1

To advance Educational Data Mining (EDM) within strict privacy-protecting regulatory frameworks, researchers must develop methods that enable data-driven analysis while protecting…

cs.CY2026

Misconception Acquisition Dynamics in Large Language Models

Naiming Liu, Xinghe Chen, Richard Baraniuk +2

Effective educational AI depends on modeling student misconceptions. Such models enable realistic learner simulation and diagnostic, adaptive tutoring. However, instruction-tuning…

cs.LG2026

Circuit Complexity of Hierarchical Knowledge Tracing and Implications for Log-Precision Transformers

Naiming Liu, Richard Baraniuk, Shashank Sonkar

Knowledge tracing models mastery over interconnected concepts, often organized by prerequisites. We analyze hierarchical prerequisite propagation through a circuit-complexity lens…

cs.CY2026

Learning Context Matters: Measuring and Diagnosing Personalization Gaps in LLM-Based Instructional Design

Johaun Hatchett, Debshila Basu Mallick, Brittany C. Bradford +1

The adoption of generative AI in education has accelerated dramatically in recent years, with Large Language Models (LLMs) increasingly integrated into learning environments in the…

cs.CY2026

MetaCLASS: Metacognitive Coaching for Learning with Adaptive Self-regulation Support

Naiming Liu, Richard Baraniuk, Shashank Sonkar

Large language models can generate fluent explanations, but effective tutoring requires supporting the learner's thought process, not just delivering content. Metacognitive tutorin…

cs.CY2026

Scalable Generation and Validation of Isomorphic Physics Problems with GenAI

Naiming Liu, Leo Murch, Spencer Moore +4

Traditional synchronous STEM assessments face growing challenges including accessibility barriers, security concerns from resource-sharing platforms, and limited comparability acro…

cs.CY2026

Learning Context: A Unified Framework and Roadmap for Context-Aware AI in Education

Naiming Liu, Brittany Bradford, Johaun Hatchett +5

We introduce a unified Learning Context (LC) framework designed to transition AI-based education from context-blind mimicry to a principled, holistic understanding of the learner.…

cs.CL2025

CLEAR-3K: Assessing Causal Explanatory Capabilities in Language Models

Naiming Liu, Richard Baraniuk, Shashank Sonkar

We introduce CLEAR-3K, a dataset of 3,000 assertion-reasoning questions designed to evaluate whether language models can determine if one statement causally explains another. Each…

cs.CL2025★ 21 cited

Training LLM-based Tutors to Improve Student Learning Outcomes in Dialogues

Alexander Scarlatos, Naiming Liu, Jaewook Lee +2

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to scale up personalized tutoring through large language models (LLMs). Recent AI tutors are adapted for the tutoring task…

cs.CL2025

Do LLMs Make Mistakes Like Students? Exploring Natural Alignment between Language Models and Human Error Patterns

Naiming Liu, Shashank Sonkar, Richard G. Baraniuk

Large Language Models (LLMs) have demonstrated remarkable capabilities in various educational tasks, yet their alignment with human learning patterns, particularly in predicting wh…

cs.AI2025

The Imitation Game for Educational AI

Shashank Sonkar, Naiming Liu, Xinghe Chen +1

As artificial intelligence systems become increasingly prevalent in education, a fundamental challenge emerges: how can we verify if an AI truly understands how students think and…

cs.CY2024★ 2 cited

Atomic Learning Objectives Labeling: A High-Resolution Approach for Physics Education

Naiming Liu, Shashank Sonkar, Debshila Basu Mallick +2

This paper introduces a novel approach to create a high-resolution "map" for physics learning: an "atomic" learning objectives (LOs) system designed to capture detailed cognitive p…

cs.HC2024★ 1 cited

LLM-based Cognitive Models of Students with Misconceptions

Shashank Sonkar, Xinghe Chen, Naiming Liu +2

Accurately modeling student cognition is crucial for developing effective AI-driven educational technologies. A key challenge is creating realistic student models that satisfy two…

cs.CL2024★ 2 cited

MalAlgoQA: Pedagogical Evaluation of Counterfactual Reasoning in Large Language Models and Implications for AI in Education

Naiming Liu, Shashank Sonkar, Myco Le +1

This paper introduces MalAlgoQA, a novel dataset designed to evaluate the counterfactual reasoning capabilities of Large Language Models (LLMs) through a pedagogical approach. The…