# Simulating Classroom Education with LLM-Empowered Agents

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.19226 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.19226/

## Key facts

- Cited by 127 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Educational agents and math problem solving, one of 16 directions in LLM agents and tool use.
- Builds on 19 of its 42 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 27 Jun 2024.

## Placed in

- LLM agents and tool use / [Educational agents and math problem solving](https://mlsanity.com/agents/educational-agents-and-math-problem-solving/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 19 of 19)

- [Language Models are Few-Shot Learners](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2005.14165/) (2020)
- [Retrieval-Augmented Generation for Knowledge-Intensive NLP Tasks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2005.11401/) (2020)
- [Generative Agents: Interactive Simulacra of Human Behavior](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.03442/) (2023)
- [Gemini 1.5: Unlocking multimodal understanding across millions of tokens of context](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.05530/) (2024)
- [Sparks of Artificial General Intelligence: Early experiments with GPT-4](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.12712/) (2023)
- [AutoGen: Enabling Next-Gen LLM Applications via Multi-Agent Conversation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.08155/) (2023)
- [CAMEL: Communicative Agents for "Mind" Exploration of Large Language Model Society](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.17760/) (2023)
- [ChatGLM: A Family of Large Language Models from GLM-130B to GLM-4 All Tools](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.12793/) (2024)
- [The Dawn of LMMs: Preliminary Explorations with GPT-4V(ision)](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.17421/) (2023)
- [ChemCrow: Augmenting large-language models with chemistry tools](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.05376/) (2023)
- [Using Large Language Models to Simulate Multiple Humans and Replicate Human Subject Studies](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.10264/) (2022)
- [Exploring Collaboration Mechanisms for LLM Agents: A Social Psychology View](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.02124/) (2023)
- [Agent Hospital: A Simulacrum of Hospital with Evolvable Medical Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.02957/) (2024)
- [EconAgent: Large Language Model-Empowered Agents for Simulating Macroeconomic Activities](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.10436/) (2023)
- [CLASS: A Design Framework for building Intelligent Tutoring Systems based on Learning Science principles](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.13272/) (2023)
- [Exploiting Cognitive Structure for Adaptive Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.12470/) (2019)
- [MathVC: An LLM-Simulated Multi-Character Virtual Classroom for Mathematics Education](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.06711/) (2024)
- [COOPER: Coordinating Specialized Agents towards a Complex Dialogue Goal](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.11792/) (2023)
- [LittleMu: Deploying an Online Virtual Teaching Assistant via Heterogeneous Sources Integration and Chain of Teach Prompts](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.05935/) (2023)

## Built on by (most cited first, 30 of 127)

- [Cut the Crap: An Economical Communication Pipeline for LLM-based Multi-Agent Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.02506/) (2024)
- [X-Teaming: Multi-Turn Jailbreaks and Defenses with Adaptive Multi-Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.13203/) (2025)
- [In Prospect and Retrospect: Reflective Memory Management for Long-term Personalized Dialogue Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.08026/) (2025)
- [Uncertainty Quantification and Confidence Calibration in Large Language Models: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.15850/) (2025)
- [STAIR: Improving Safety Alignment with Introspective Reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.02384/) (2025)
- [Large Language Model Agent in Financial Trading: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.06361/) (2024)
- [RealSafe-R1: Safety-Aligned DeepSeek-R1 without Compromising Reasoning Capability](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.10081/) (2025)
- [TRAJECT-Bench:A Trajectory-Aware Benchmark for Evaluating Agentic Tool Use](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.04550/) (2025)
- [The State of Multilingual LLM Safety Research: From Measuring the Language Gap to Mitigating It](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.24119/) (2025)
- [Interactive Agents: Simulating Counselor-Client Psychological Counseling via Role-Playing LLM-to-LLM Interactions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.15787/) (2024)
- [MEDCO: Medical Education Copilots Based on A Multi-Agent Framework](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.12496/) (2024)
- ['Simulacrum of Stories': Examining Large Language Models as Qualitative Research Participants](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.19430/) (2024)
- [LLMs are Biased Teachers: Evaluating LLM Bias in Personalized Education](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.14012/) (2024)
- [Social Science Meets LLMs: How Reliable Are Large Language Models in Social Simulations?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.23426/) (2024)
- [How Far are LLMs from Being Our Digital Twins? A Benchmark for Persona-Based Behavior Chain Simulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.14642/) (2025)
- [OptimAI: Optimization from Natural Language Using LLM-Powered AI Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.16918/) (2025)
- [TripTailor: A Real-World Benchmark for Personalized Travel Planning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.01432/) (2025)
- [DeceptionBench: A Comprehensive Benchmark for AI Deception Behaviors in Real-world Scenarios](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.15501/) (2025)
- [A Survey on LLM-based Conversational User Simulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.24977/) (2026)
- [Mutual Theory of Mind in Human-AI Collaboration: An Empirical Study with LLM-driven AI Agents in a Real-time Shared Workspace Task](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.08811/) (2024)
- [Can A Society of Generative Agents Simulate Human Behavior and Inform Public Health Policy? A Case Study on Vaccine Hesitancy](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.09639/) (2025)
- [A Systematic Assessment of OpenAI o1-Preview for Higher Order Thinking in Education](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.21287/) (2024)
- [EduBench: A Comprehensive Benchmarking Dataset for Evaluating Large Language Models in Diverse Educational Scenarios](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.16160/) (2025)
- [From MOOC to MAIC: Reshaping Online Teaching and Learning through LLM-driven Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.03512/) (2024)
- [Using Generative AI and Multi-Agents to Provide Automatic Feedback](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.07407/) (2024)
- [Classroom Simulacra: Building Contextual Student Generative Agents in Online Education for Learning Behavioral Simulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.02780/) (2025)
- [Firm or Fickle? Evaluating Large Language Models Consistency in Sequential Interactions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.22353/) (2025)
- [Evolution of AI in Education: Agentic Workflows](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.20082/) (2025)
- [LLM-Based Social Simulations Require a Boundary](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.19806/) (2025)
- [Enhancing Model Defense Against Jailbreaks with Proactive Safety Reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.19180/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Large language models (LLMs) have been applied across various intelligent educational tasks to assist teaching. While preliminary studies have focused on task-specific, independent LLM-empowered agents, the potential of LLMs within a multi-agent collaborative framework for classroom simulation with real user participation remains unexplored. In this work, we propose SimClass, a multi-agent classroom simulation teaching framework. We recognize representative class roles and introduce a novel class control mechanism for automatic classroom teaching, and conduct user experiments in two real-world courses. Using the Flanders Interactive Analysis System and Community of Inquiry theoretical frameworks from educational analysis, we demonstrate that LLMs can simulate a dynamic learning environment for users with active teacher-student and student-student interactions. We also observe group behaviors among agents in SimClass, where agents collaborate to create enlivening interactions in classrooms to improve user learning process. We hope this work pioneers the application of LLM-empowered multi-agent systems in virtual classroom teaching.