Teaching Language Models How to Code Like Learners: Conversational Serialization for Student Simulation

arXiv:2604.10720v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Artificial models that simulate how learners act and respond within educational systems are a promising tool for evaluating tutoring strategies and feedback mechanisms at scale. However, many existing approaches in programming education rely on prompting large, proprietary language models, raising concerns around privacy, cost, and dependence. In this work, we propose a method for training open-weight artificial programming learners using authentic