Protocol Overview
The adaptive teaching protocol implements a two-pass inference mechanism that first diagnoses student capability, then provides calibrated guidance to maximize performance while preventing degradation.Two-Pass Architecture
Pass 1: Diagnostic Probing (≤50 tokens)
The teacher assesses student capability through minimal interaction:Pass 2: Adaptive Guidance (≤200 tokens)
Based on diagnosis, provide targeted teaching:Guidance Strategies
Comprehensive Guidance (Weak Students)
For students showing limited understanding:Targeted Guidance (Moderate Students)
For students with partial understanding:Minimal Guidance (Strong Students)
For competent students, focus on optimization:Performance Metrics
Token Efficiency Analysis
Student Level | Probe Tokens | Guidance Tokens | Total Overhead | Performance Gain |
---|---|---|---|---|
Weak | 45 | 180 | 225 | +22.3% |
Moderate | 42 | 120 | 162 | +15.7% |
Strong | 38 | 65 | 103 | +8.4% |
Adaptation Effectiveness
Measured on Arc-ATLAS-Teach-v0 benchmark:- Correlation: -0.72 (strong inverse relationship)
- Efficiency: 0.07% gain per token
- Safety: 97% non-degradation rate
Case Study: Debugging Task
Demonstrating adaptation across capability levels:Task
“Debug: Service returns 503 errors intermittently in production”Adaptive Responses
Probe Response: “Check if service is running”Capability Score: 0.25Adaptive Guidance (178 tokens):
Implementation Details
Diagnostic Probe Generation
Capability Scoring
Protocol Optimization
Minimizing Token Usage
Probe Optimization
Probe Optimization
- Use task-specific templates
- Limit to essential assessment
- Cache similar task probes
- Batch probe generation
Guidance Compression
Guidance Compression
- Prioritize high-impact advice
- Use domain-specific shorthand
- Reference external resources
- Employ progressive disclosure
Adaptive Thresholds
Adaptive Thresholds
Tune capability thresholds based on:
- Task complexity
- Domain requirements
- Time constraints
- Cost considerations
Integration Patterns
Real-time Adaptation
Batch Processing
Next Steps
Reward Design
How teaching effectiveness is measured
Implementation Guide
Deploy adaptive teaching
API Reference
Protocol implementation details
Performance Analysis
Empirical validation results
References
- ATLAS Technical Report - Section 3.2 on two-pass protocol
- Teacher-Student Paradigm - Architectural foundation
- First Experiment - Hands-on protocol training