Decoding Student Dialogue: A Multi-Dimensional Comparison and Bias Analysis of Large Language Models as Annotation Tools

TL;DR

This study assesses GPT-5.2 and Gemini-3 for educational dialogue annotation, revealing context-dependent accuracy, bias patterns, and the importance of deployment considerations.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive evaluation of large language models as annotation tools, highlighting their biases and performance variations across educational contexts.

Findings

Multi-agent prompting achieved highest accuracy but not statistically significant.

Higher accuracy in K-12 datasets compared to university-level data.

Bias patterns include optimistic bias in Gemini-3 and domain-specific under/overestimation.

Abstract

Educational dialogue is critical for decoding student learning processes, yet manual annotation remains time-consuming. This study evaluates the efficacy of GPT-5.2 and Gemini-3 using three prompting strategies (few-shot, single-agent, and multi-agent reflection) across diverse subjects, educational levels, and four coding dimensions. Results indicate that while multi-agent prompting achieved the highest accuracy, the results did not reach statistical significance. Accuracy proved highly context-dependent, with significantly higher performance in K-12 datasets compared to university-level data, alongside disciplinary variations within the same educational level. Performance peaked in the affective dimension but remained lowest in the cognitive dimension. Furthermore, analysis revealed four bias patterns: (1) Gemini-3 exhibited a consistent optimistic bias in the affective dimension across all subjects; (2) the cognitive dimension displayed domain-specific directional bias, characterized by systematic underestimation in Mathematics versus overestimation in Psychology; (3) both models are more prone to overestimation than underestimation within the meta-cognitive dimension; and (4) behavioral categories such as question, negotiation, and statements were frequently misclassified. These results underscore the need for context-sensitive deployment and targeted mitigation of directional biases in automated annotation.