Tailoring Scaffolding to Diagnostic Strategies: Theory-Informed LLM-Based Agents

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Hauptverfasser: Gures, Fatma Betul, Nazaretsky, Tanya, Kaser, Tanja
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2026
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author Gures, Fatma Betul
Nazaretsky, Tanya
Kaser, Tanja
author_facet Gures, Fatma Betul
Nazaretsky, Tanya
Kaser, Tanja
contents Learning analytics systems increasingly integrate large language models (LLMs) to provide adaptive scaffolding in complex learning environments, yet personalization is often driven by global instructional choices rather than principled alignment with learning theory, limiting effectiveness and pedagogical grounding. In prior work, we examined how structuring and problematizing scaffolding approaches can be instantiated through LLM agents in a scenario-based learning environment for diagnostic reasoning. While both approaches supported learning, we observed systematic differences in learner interaction patterns and clear tendencies indicating that different diagnostic strategies benefited from distinct forms of scaffolding. Building on these findings, we propose a theory-informed scaffolding design grounded in the Knowledge Learning Instruction (KLI) framework, as different diagnostic strategies target different types of knowledge and require different instructional mechanisms. We use KLI to guide the alignment between strategy demands and scaffolding approaches and introduce a KLI-informed hybrid LLM agent that adapts its pedagogical support according to the diagnostic strategy being practiced, rather than applying a single global scaffolding approach. We hypothesize that this design could enable better learning gains.
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id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2605_04996
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Tailoring Scaffolding to Diagnostic Strategies: Theory-Informed LLM-Based Agents
Gures, Fatma Betul
Nazaretsky, Tanya
Kaser, Tanja
Human-Computer Interaction
Learning analytics systems increasingly integrate large language models (LLMs) to provide adaptive scaffolding in complex learning environments, yet personalization is often driven by global instructional choices rather than principled alignment with learning theory, limiting effectiveness and pedagogical grounding. In prior work, we examined how structuring and problematizing scaffolding approaches can be instantiated through LLM agents in a scenario-based learning environment for diagnostic reasoning. While both approaches supported learning, we observed systematic differences in learner interaction patterns and clear tendencies indicating that different diagnostic strategies benefited from distinct forms of scaffolding. Building on these findings, we propose a theory-informed scaffolding design grounded in the Knowledge Learning Instruction (KLI) framework, as different diagnostic strategies target different types of knowledge and require different instructional mechanisms. We use KLI to guide the alignment between strategy demands and scaffolding approaches and introduce a KLI-informed hybrid LLM agent that adapts its pedagogical support according to the diagnostic strategy being practiced, rather than applying a single global scaffolding approach. We hypothesize that this design could enable better learning gains.
title Tailoring Scaffolding to Diagnostic Strategies: Theory-Informed LLM-Based Agents
topic Human-Computer Interaction
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.04996