arXiv:2602.00021cs.CYcs.AI2026-02中稿 · as a full paper at…被引 1

用复杂系统理论预警学习者脱落,提前发现风险。

Early Warning Signals Appear Long Before Dropping Out: An Idiographic Approach Grounded in Complex Dynamic Systems Theory

  • 基于临界减速理论计算多种动态指标,捕捉韧性下降信号。
  • 88.2%学生在脱落前出现预警信号,集中在活动末期。
  • 信号具普适性,适用于不同学习环境与数据类型。

维持参与度与应对挫折的能力(即韧性)是学习的基础。当韧性减弱时,学生面临脱离学习的风险,可能导致辍学并错失机会。因此,在仍有干预可能的窗口期提前预测脱离行为至关重要。本文检验了基于临界减速(CSD)理论的早期预警信号能否在辍学前较长时间内预测脱离。CSD广泛存在于生态、气候与神经等系统中,预示着灾难性崩溃(本研究中为辍学)。利用9,401名学生在数字数学学习平台上的167万次练习数据,我们计算了自相关性、回复率、方差、偏度、峰度和变异系数等CSD指标。结果发现,88.2%的学生在脱离前表现出CSD信号,且预警信号集中出现在活动后期、练习停止前。这是教育领域首次发现CSD现象,表明人类学习这类社会系统也遵循普遍的韧性动态规律。这些发现为提前识别脆弱性提供了实用指标,支持在多种应用场景中长期干预。更重要的是,这些指标具有普遍性,不依赖数据生成机制,具备跨场景、跨数据类型与学习环境的可迁移潜力。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

The ability to sustain engagement and recover from setbacks (i.e., resilience) -- is fundamental for learning. When resilience weakens, students are at risk of disengagement and may drop out and miss on opportunities. Therefore, predicting disengagement long before it happens during the window of hope is important. In this article, we test whether early warning signals of resilience loss, grounded in the concept of critical slowing down (CSD) can forecast disengagement before dropping out. CSD has been widely observed across ecological, climate, and neural systems, where it precedes tipping points into catastrophic failure (dropping out in our case). Using 1.67 million practice attempts from 9,401 students who used a digital math learning environment, we computed CSD indicators: autocorrelation, return rate, variance, skewness, kurtosis, and coefficient of variation. We found that 88.2% of students exhibited CSD signals prior to disengagement, with warnings clustering late in activity and before practice ceased (dropping out). Our results provide the first evidence of CSD in education, suggesting that universal resilience dynamics also govern social systems such as human learning. These findings offer a practical indicator for early detection of vulnerability and supporting learners across different applications and contexts long before critical events happen. Most importantly, CSD indicators arise universally, independent of the mechanisms that generate the data, offering new opportunities for portability across contexts, data types, and learning environments.

学习分析预警系统临界减速教育科技

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