A constraints-based approach to fully interpretable neural networks for detecting learner behaviors

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Pinto, Juan D., Paquette, Luc
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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author Pinto, Juan D.
Paquette, Luc
author_facet Pinto, Juan D.
Paquette, Luc
contents The increasing use of complex machine learning models in education has led to concerns about their interpretability, which in turn has spurred interest in developing explainability techniques that are both faithful to the model's inner workings and intelligible to human end-users. In this paper, we describe a novel approach to creating a neural-network-based behavior detection model that is interpretable by design. Our model is fully interpretable, meaning that the parameters we extract for our explanations have a clear interpretation, fully capture the model's learned knowledge about the learner behavior of interest, and can be used to create explanations that are both faithful and intelligible. We achieve this by implementing a series of constraints to the model that both simplify its inference process and bring it closer to a human conception of the task at hand. We train the model to detect gaming-the-system behavior, evaluate its performance on this task, and compare its learned patterns to those identified by human experts. Our results show that the model is successfully able to learn patterns indicative of gaming-the-system behavior while providing evidence for fully interpretable explanations. We discuss the implications of our approach and suggest ways to evaluate explainability using a human-grounded approach.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2504_20055
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A constraints-based approach to fully interpretable neural networks for detecting learner behaviors
Pinto, Juan D.
Paquette, Luc
Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
The increasing use of complex machine learning models in education has led to concerns about their interpretability, which in turn has spurred interest in developing explainability techniques that are both faithful to the model's inner workings and intelligible to human end-users. In this paper, we describe a novel approach to creating a neural-network-based behavior detection model that is interpretable by design. Our model is fully interpretable, meaning that the parameters we extract for our explanations have a clear interpretation, fully capture the model's learned knowledge about the learner behavior of interest, and can be used to create explanations that are both faithful and intelligible. We achieve this by implementing a series of constraints to the model that both simplify its inference process and bring it closer to a human conception of the task at hand. We train the model to detect gaming-the-system behavior, evaluate its performance on this task, and compare its learned patterns to those identified by human experts. Our results show that the model is successfully able to learn patterns indicative of gaming-the-system behavior while providing evidence for fully interpretable explanations. We discuss the implications of our approach and suggest ways to evaluate explainability using a human-grounded approach.
title A constraints-based approach to fully interpretable neural networks for detecting learner behaviors
topic Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.20055