# Learning by Teaching: Engaging Students as Instructors of Large Language Models in Computer Science Education

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.05979 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.05979/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 23 of its 43 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 8 Aug 2025.

## Builds on (most cited first, 23 of 23)

- [GPT-4 Technical Report](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.08774/) (2023)
- [LLaMA: Open and Efficient Foundation Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.13971/) (2023)
- [Llama 2: Open Foundation and Fine-Tuned Chat Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.09288/) (2023)
- [Chain-of-Thought Prompting Elicits Reasoning in Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.11903/) (2022)
- [Self-Consistency Improves Chain of Thought Reasoning in Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.11171/) (2022)
- [Large Language Models are Zero-Shot Reasoners](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.11916/) (2022)
- [Self-Refine: Iterative Refinement with Self-Feedback](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.17651/) (2023)
- [Gemini 1.5: Unlocking multimodal understanding across millions of tokens of context](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.05530/) (2024)
- [A Survey of Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.18223/) (2023)
- [PaLM 2 Technical Report](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.10403/) (2023)
- [Harnessing the Power of LLMs in Practice: A Survey on ChatGPT and Beyond](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.13712/) (2023)
- [Universal Self-Consistency for Large Language Model Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.17311/) (2023)
- [Large Language Models for Education: A Survey and Outlook](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.18105/) (2024)
- [Navigate through Enigmatic Labyrinth A Survey of Chain of Thought Reasoning: Advances, Frontiers and Future](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.15402/) (2023)
- [CodeAid: Evaluating a Classroom Deployment of an LLM-based Programming Assistant that Balances Student and Educator Needs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.11314/) (2024)
- [A Survey of GPT-3 Family Large Language Models Including ChatGPT and GPT-4](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.12321/) (2023)
- [Beyond Accuracy: Evaluating Self-Consistency of Code Large Language Models with IdentityChain](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.14053/) (2023)
- [Desirable Characteristics for AI Teaching Assistants in Programming Education](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.14178/) (2024)
- [Can LLMs Reliably Simulate Human Learner Actions? A Simulation Authoring Framework for Open-Ended Learning Environments](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.02110/) (2024)
- [Large Language Models in Computer Science Education: A Systematic Literature Review](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.16349/) (2024)
- [Self-Consistency of Large Language Models under Ambiguity](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.13439/) (2023)
- [Generative AI in the Classroom: Can Students Remain Active Learners?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.03192/) (2023)
- [Are LLMs Useful in the Poorest Schools? TheTeacher.AI in Sierra Leone](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.02982/) (2023)

## Abstract (arXiv)

While Large Language Models (LLMs) are often used as virtual tutors in computer science (CS) education, this approach can foster passive learning and over-reliance. This paper presents a novel pedagogical paradigm that inverts this model: students act as instructors who must teach an LLM to solve problems. To facilitate this, we developed strategies for designing questions with engineered knowledge gaps that only a student can bridge, and we introduce Socrates, a system for deploying this method with minimal overhead. We evaluated our approach in an undergraduate course and found that this active-learning method led to statistically significant improvements in student performance compared to historical cohorts. Our work demonstrates a practical, cost-effective framework for using LLMs to deepen student engagement and mastery.