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摘要: 教育研究长期面临全过程追踪难、多变量易混淆、反事实实验受限等方法论困境, 制约着对复杂教育现象的深入理解. 大语言模型驱动的智能体技术为突破传统教育研究范式局限、构建灵活可控的教育研究仿真环境提供新思路. 提出一种支持长周期多尺度分析的课堂仿真建模框架AgentClass, 构建包含1名教师与30名学生智能体的课堂环境, 模拟出80天周期内课堂教学与课间社交的演化. 该框架通过分层记忆架构与“观察—思考—行动”决策机制驱动智能体的持续演化与群体涌现. 实验结果表明, AgentClass在微观层面维持个体行为合理性, 在宏观层面实现社交网络从空图自发演化为稳定社区结构, 在效应复现方面能够成功复现大鱼小池效应, 并通过反事实干预提供其形成机制的分析线索. AgentClass以其支持全过程记录、单变量操控、反事实实验等能力, 为探索人工智能驱动的教育科学研究新范式提供一种具有潜力的工具.
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关键词:
- 智能体 /
- 课堂仿真 /
- 智能教育 /
- 人工智能驱动的教育科学研究
Abstract: Educational research has long faced methodological challenges, including difficulties in full-process tracking, confounding among multiple variables, and constraints on counterfactual experimentation. These challenges hinder a deeper understanding of complex educational phenomena. Large language model-driven agent technology offers new approaches to overcoming the limitations of traditional educational research paradigms and constructing flexible and controllable simulation environments for educational research. This paper proposes AgentClass, an agent-based class simulation framework that supports long-term, multi-scale analysis. It constructs a simulated class environment with one teacher agent and thirty student agents, simulating the evolution of both instructional interactions and peer social interactions over an 80-day period. The framework employs a hierarchical memory architecture and an observe-think-act decision mechanism to drive continuous individual evolution and collective emergence. Experimental results show that AgentClass maintains plausible individual behavior at the micro level, enables social networks to spontaneously evolve from empty graphs into stable community structures at the macro level, and, in terms of effect reproduction, successfully reproduces the big-fish-little-pond effect with analytical insights into its formation mechanism through counterfactual interventions. By supporting full-process recording, single-variable manipulation, and counterfactual experimentation, AgentClass serves as a promising tool for exploring the new paradigm of AI for education science.-
Key words:
- agent /
- class simulation /
- smart education /
- AI for education science
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表 1 代表性课堂多智能体模拟系统的关键特征对比
Table 1 Comparison of key characteristics among representative multi-agent class simulation systems
系统 学生数 模拟周期 长周期状态演化 课堂交互 课间社交 反事实实验 教育效应复现 涌现现象 在线课堂或抽象课堂 SimClass[18] 4 1节课 $ \times $ $ \checkmark $ $ \times $ $ \times $ $ \times $ $ \checkmark $ MathVC[19] 2 1节课 $ \times $ $ \checkmark $ $ \times $ $ \times $ $ \times $ $ \times $ EduAgent[20] – 1节课 $ \times $ $ \times $ $ \times $ $ \times $ $ \times $ $ \times $ Classroom simulacra[21] – – $ \times $ $ \times $ $ \times $ $ \times $ $ \times $ $ \times $ LearnerAgent[22] 4 12个月 $ \checkmark $ $ \times $ $ \times $ $ \times $ $ \times $ $ \checkmark $ 线下物理课堂 EduVerse[23] 6 4节课 $ \checkmark $ $ \checkmark $ $ \times $ $ \times $ $ \times $ $ \checkmark $ AI-Agent school[24] 40 5天 $ \checkmark $ $ \checkmark $ $ \checkmark $ $ \times $ $ \times $ $ \times $ AgentClass 30 80天 $ \checkmark $ $ \checkmark $ $ \checkmark $ $ \checkmark $ $ \checkmark $ $ \checkmark $ 表 2 智能体个体行为合理性的主观评估结果
Table 2 Subjective evaluation results of individual agent behavior plausibility
基座模型 配置 情境合理性评分$ \uparrow $ 人格一致性评分$ \uparrow $ 状态一致性评分$ \uparrow $ 人类偏好比例$ \uparrow $ Qwen2.5-7B-Instruct AgentClass 7.89 ± 1.92 8.12 ± 1.49 8.20 ± 1.36 83.2% w/o课间社交 6.35 ± 2.09 6.29 ± 1.88 6.38 ± 1.90 8.5% w/o记忆架构 4.67 ± 1.22 2.01 ± 0.81 3.62 ± 0.72 2.3% w/o OTA决策机制 5.28 ± 2.81 5.33 ± 2.30 5.12 ± 2.57 6.0% Qwen2.5-32B-Instruct AgentClass 8.53 ± 1.13 8.48 ± 1.08 8.45 ± 1.03 87.5% w/o课间社交 7.16 ± 1.70 7.41 ± 1.83 6.48 ± 1.65 6.3% w/o记忆架构 5.30 ± 0.68 3.04 ± 0.94 4.26 ± 0.51 0.9% w/o OTA决策机制 5.74 ± 1.98 5.62 ± 1.65 5.97 ± 1.82 5.4% 表 3 不同能力分布下观察对象的学业自我概念得分
Table 3 Academic self-concept scores of the observed student under different ability distributions
组别 能力分布 ($L1$:$L2$:$L3$) Qwen2.5-7B-Instruct Qwen2.5-32B-Instruct A 5:20:5 5.5 5.4 B 9:12:9 5.1 4.9 C 10:10:10 5.0 4.6 D 30:0:0 3.5 3.4 表 4 案例分析: A组与D组中观察对象的访谈结果对比
Table 4 Case study: Interview result comparison of the observed student in Groups A and D
访谈维度 A组 D组 能力自评 我觉得自己语文还可以, 虽然比不上几个特别厉害的同学, 但在班上算中等偏上吧 说不上好也说不上差, 大家水平都差不多, 我也就那样 比较对象 我经常和周明、李强他们比, 感觉我跟他们差距不大, 有时候考得比他们还好 没什么特别想比的人, 反正大家成绩都差不多 课堂体验 老师有时候会叫我回答问题, 挺有成就感的 感觉老师对我们班上每个人的关注度都类似 学习动机 我觉得再努力一点应该能进步, 下次争取考得更好 和其他同学成绩差不多, 每次都能考一个中间名次 社交反馈 有同学会来找我讨论题目, 我觉得自己还是有点用的 来找我讨论的同学不多, 我也不太主动找别人 表 5 反事实实验中观察对象的学业自我概念变化
Table 5 Changes in the observed student's academic self-concept in counterfactual experiments
干预条件 描述 Qwen2.5-7B-Instruct Qwen2.5-32B-Instruct 原始 A组完整模拟 5.5 5.4 干预1) 不公开考试成绩 5.3 5.0 干预2) 干预1) + 禁止成绩传播 5.0 4.8 干预3) 干预2) + 教师不提问 4.8 4.5 干预4) 干预3) + 禁止社交 4.6 4.3 表 6 80天仿真的计算成本统计
Table 6 Computational cost statistics for the 80-day simulation
基座模型 token消耗(千万) GPU小时数 Qwen2.5-7B-Instruct 2.589 56.5 Qwen2.5-32B-Instruct 2.674 129.6 -
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