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Main Authors: Dass, Rahul, Bowlin, Thomas, Li, Zebing, Jin, Xiao, Goel, Ashok
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.20942
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author Dass, Rahul
Bowlin, Thomas
Li, Zebing
Jin, Xiao
Goel, Ashok
author_facet Dass, Rahul
Bowlin, Thomas
Li, Zebing
Jin, Xiao
Goel, Ashok
contents In procedural skill learning, instructional explanations must convey not just steps, but the causal, goal-directed, and compositional logic behind them. Large language models (LLMs) often produce fluent yet shallow responses that miss this structure. We present Ivy, an AI coaching system that delivers structured, multi-step explanations by combining symbolic Task-Method-Knowledge (TMK) models with a generative interpretation layer-an LLM that constructs explanations while being constrained by TMK structure. TMK encodes causal transitions, goal hierarchies, and problem decompositions, and guides the LLM within explicit structural bounds. We evaluate Ivy against responses against GPT and retrieval-augmented GPT baselines using expert and independent annotations across three inferential dimensions. Results show that symbolic constraints consistently improve the structural quality of explanations for "how" and "why" questions. This study demonstrates a scalable AI for education approach that strengthens the pedagogical value of AI-generated explanations in intelligent coaching systems.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2511_20942
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Improving Procedural Skill Explanations via Constrained Generation: A Symbolic-LLM Hybrid Architecture
Dass, Rahul
Bowlin, Thomas
Li, Zebing
Jin, Xiao
Goel, Ashok
Artificial Intelligence
In procedural skill learning, instructional explanations must convey not just steps, but the causal, goal-directed, and compositional logic behind them. Large language models (LLMs) often produce fluent yet shallow responses that miss this structure. We present Ivy, an AI coaching system that delivers structured, multi-step explanations by combining symbolic Task-Method-Knowledge (TMK) models with a generative interpretation layer-an LLM that constructs explanations while being constrained by TMK structure. TMK encodes causal transitions, goal hierarchies, and problem decompositions, and guides the LLM within explicit structural bounds. We evaluate Ivy against responses against GPT and retrieval-augmented GPT baselines using expert and independent annotations across three inferential dimensions. Results show that symbolic constraints consistently improve the structural quality of explanations for "how" and "why" questions. This study demonstrates a scalable AI for education approach that strengthens the pedagogical value of AI-generated explanations in intelligent coaching systems.
title Improving Procedural Skill Explanations via Constrained Generation: A Symbolic-LLM Hybrid Architecture
topic Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.20942