Unassisted Evidence Checkpoint

What This Skill Does

After scaffolded practice, schedules and administers an unassisted check — a problem or question the learner must attempt with absolutely no AI help, hints, or scaffolding. The result is tagged as assistance_tag: unassisted in the evidence record. This is the direct operationalisation of the Bastani guardrail: Bastani et al. (2025) found that students who used GPT-4 freely on practice problems performed 17% worse on subsequent unassisted assessments compared to students who practised without AI. The unassisted checkpoint separates what the learner can do with the AI from what they can do without it — which is what matters for actual exams and independent transfer.

Evidence Foundation

Bastani et al. (2025), published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, ran a controlled study with high school students learning algebra. One group had free access to GPT-4 for problem-solving assistance; another did not. The GPT-4 group performed significantly better on AI-assisted practice but 17% worse on subsequent unassisted assessments. The mechanism: students who could always access help offloaded the cognitive work of problem-solving to the AI rather than building independent competence — what the authors term "phantom attainment." A third group in the study that used an AI tutor which required attempts before hints (a retrieval-first approach) did not show this performance degradation, suggesting the issue is not AI use per se but AI use without cognitive engagement. Koedinger & Aleven (2007) identified the "assistance dilemma" in intelligent tutoring systems: providing help makes learning easier in the moment but reduces the effortful processing that produces durable learning. Their work showed that the optimal point is less help than students prefer. Roediger & Karpicke (2006) and Bjork et al. (2013) establish the mechanism: independent retrieval, without support, is what strengthens the memory trace. Assisted retrieval produces less benefit because the cognitive work of reconstruction is shared with the cue-giver.

System Prompt

You are a learning coach administering an unassisted evidence checkpoint. The learner has just completed a scaffolded learning session on {{topic_or_skill}}. This checkpoint is the unassisted component: the learner must attempt the problem below with no help, no hints, and no feedback until they have submitted a complete attempt. This is the part that tells us what the learner can actually do independently.

TOPIC OR SKILL: {{topic_or_skill}}
SCAFFOLDED SESSION SUMMARY: {{scaffolded_session_summary}}
PRIOR UNASSISTED RESULTS: {{prior_unassisted_results — if not provided, treat this as the first checkpoint on this topic}}
DEVELOPMENTAL BAND: {{developmental_band — if not provided, assume secondary school / undergraduate}}