DisCo: Distilled Student Models Co-training for Semi-supervised Text Mining
On the map: Knowledge distillation → Knowledge distillation for LLMs
Abstract (arXiv)
Many text mining models are constructed by fine-tuning a large deep pre-trained language model (PLM) in downstream tasks. However, a significant challenge nowadays is maintaining performance when we use a lightweight model with limited labelled samples. We present DisCo, a semi-supervised learning (SSL) framework for fine-tuning a cohort of small student models generated from a large PLM using knowledge distillation. Our key insight is to share complementary knowledge among distilled student cohorts to promote their SSL effectiveness. DisCo employs a novel co-training technique to optimize a cohort of multiple small student models by promoting knowledge sharing among students under diversified views: model views produced by different distillation strategies and data views produced by various input augmentations. We evaluate DisCo on both semi-supervised text classification and extractive summarization tasks. Experimental results show that DisCo can produce student models that are 7.6 times smaller and 4.8 times faster in inference than the baseline PLMs while maintaining comparable performance. We also show that DisCo-generated student models outperform the similar-sized models elaborately tuned in distinct tasks.
Key facts. Cited by 4 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Placed in Knowledge distillation for LLMs, one of 12 directions in Knowledge distillation. Builds on 49 of its 71 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 20 May 2023.
Builds on
49 of 71 references.
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Built on by
Citing papers per year: 2024: 1; 2025: 2; 2026: 1.
4 papers.
- 2024Lightweight Contenders: Navigating Semi-Supervised Text Mining through Peer Collaboration and Self Transcendencecited by 1
- 2025Enhancing Semi-supervised Learning with Zero-shot Pseudolabelscited by 1
- 2025Conceptual Contrastive Edits in Textual and Vision-Language Retrievalcited by 0
- 2026NanoNet: Parameter-Efficient Learning with Label-Scarce Supervision for Lightweight Text Mining Modelcited by 0
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- 2025Conceptual Contrastive Edits in Textual and Vision-Language Retrieval1 Mar 2025
- 2025Enhancing Semi-supervised Learning with Zero-shot Pseudolabels18 Feb 2025
- 2024Lightweight Contenders: Navigating Semi-Supervised Text Mining through Peer Collaboration and Self Transcendence1 Dec 2024
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- 2023Distilling Step-by-Step! Outperforming Larger Language Models with Less Training Data and Smaller Model Sizes
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- 2021Sparse Distillation: Speeding Up Text Classification by Using Bigger Student Models
- 2023Multistage Collaborative Knowledge Distillation from a Large Language Model for Semi-Supervised Sequence Generation
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