# Investigating the Zone of Proximal Development of Language Models for In-Context Learning

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.06990 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.06990/

## Key facts

- Cited by 6 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 33 of its 49 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 10 Feb 2025.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 33)

- [Adam: A Method for Stochastic Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1412.6980/) (2014)
- [Language Models are Few-Shot Learners](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2005.14165/) (2020)
- [The Llama 3 Herd of Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.21783/) (2024)
- [Llama 2: Open Foundation and Fine-Tuned Chat Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.09288/) (2023)
- [Training Verifiers to Solve Math Word Problems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.14168/) (2021)
- [Sentence-BERT: Sentence Embeddings using Siamese BERT-Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1908.10084/) (2019)
- [Calibrate Before Use: Improving Few-Shot Performance of Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.09690/) (2021)
- [What Makes Good In-Context Examples for GPT-3?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2101.06804/) (2021)
- [Fantastically Ordered Prompts and Where to Find Them: Overcoming Few-Shot Prompt Order Sensitivity](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.08786/) (2021)
- [An Explanation of In-context Learning as Implicit Bayesian Inference](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.02080/) (2021)
- [What Can Transformers Learn In-Context? A Case Study of Simple Function Classes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.01066/) (2022)
- [What learning algorithm is in-context learning? Investigations with linear models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.15661/) (2022)
- [Learning To Retrieve Prompts for In-Context Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.08633/) (2021)
- [Training Region-based Object Detectors with Online Hard Example Mining](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1604.03540/) (2016)
- [Dataset Cartography: Mapping and Diagnosing Datasets with Training Dynamics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2009.10795/) (2020)
- [Larger language models do in-context learning differently](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.03846/) (2023)
- [tinyBenchmarks: evaluating LLMs with fewer examples](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.14992/) (2024)
- [Prioritized Training on Points that are Learnable, Worth Learning, and Not Yet Learnt](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.07137/) (2022)
- [Competence-based Curriculum Learning for Neural Machine Translation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1903.09848/) (2019)
- [A Careful Examination of Large Language Model Performance on Grade School Arithmetic](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.00332/) (2024)
- [Large Language Models Are Latent Variable Models: Explaining and Finding Good Demonstrations for In-Context Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.11916/) (2023)
- [Compositional Exemplars for In-context Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.05698/) (2023)
- [Unified Demonstration Retriever for In-Context Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.04320/) (2023)
- [In-Context Learning with Iterative Demonstration Selection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.09881/) (2023)
- [Simple and Effective Curriculum Pointer-Generator Networks for Reading Comprehension over Long Narratives](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.10847/) (2019)
- [Revisiting Demonstration Selection Strategies in In-Context Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.12087/) (2024)
- [Curriculum learning for language modeling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2108.02170/) (2021)
- [Unsupervised Hard Example Mining from Videos for Improved Object Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1808.04285/) (2018)
- [py-irt: A Scalable Item Response Theory Library for Python](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.01282/) (2022)
- [Irreducible Curriculum for Language Model Pretraining](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.15389/) (2023)

## Built on by (most cited first, 6 of 6)

- [Teacher Demonstrations in a BabyLM's Zone of Proximal Development for Contingent Multi-Turn Interaction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.20411/) (2025)
- [A Review of Incorporating Psychological Theories in LLMs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.00003/) (2025)
- [Simulating Students with Large Language Models: A Review of Architecture, Mechanisms, and Role Modelling in Education with Generative AI](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.06078/) (2025)
- [T-pro 2.0: An Efficient Russian Hybrid-Reasoning Model and Playground](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.10430/) (2025)
- [STRETCH the Boundaries: A Unified Self-Taught Framework for Progressive LLM Evolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.18642/) (2026)
- [What Makes Something Hard(er)? Explaining Question Difficulty in Natural Language](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.01627/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

In this paper, we introduce a learning analytics framework to analyze the in-context learning (ICL) behavior of large language models (LLMs) through the lens of the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), an established theory in educational psychology. ZPD delineates the space between what a learner is capable of doing unsupported and what the learner cannot do even with support. We adapt this concept to ICL, measuring the ZPD of LLMs based on model performance on individual examples with and without ICL. Furthermore, we propose an item response theory (IRT) model to predict the distribution of zones for LLMs. Our findings reveal a series of intricate and multifaceted behaviors of ICL, providing new insights into understanding and leveraging this technique. Finally, we demonstrate how our framework can enhance LLM in both inference and fine-tuning scenarios: (1) By predicting a model's zone of proximal development, we selectively apply ICL to queries that are most likely to benefit from demonstrations, achieving a better balance between inference cost and performance; (2) We propose a human-like curriculum for fine-tuning, which prioritizes examples within the model's ZPD. The curriculum results in improved performance, and we explain its effectiveness through an analysis of the training dynamics of LLMs.