Abstract
Adaptive learning systems commonly formulate learning path planning as Exercise-Centric (EC) recommendation, where the next step is inferred from item-level interaction logs. Evaluating goal-oriented guidance additionally requires explicit learner goals and curriculum-scale prerequisites: learners with similar exercise records may need different paths toward their targets. We therefore study Knowledge-Centric (KC) personalized learning path planning, where a planner must reason over learner profiles, mastery states, and prerequisite knowledge structures to decide which textbook, unit, and concept should be studied next. To support this setting, we introduce PersonaPath, a benchmark that pairs 2,000 fine-grained learner personas with a hierarchical knowledge graph of 347 textbooks, 1,751 units, and 4,092 concepts across 77 subjects. We evaluate representative LLMs on PersonaPath. Results show that even the strongest LLM reaches only a 29.5% final pass rate in Basic Education, and that the main bottleneck lies in adaptivity, where no model exceeds 44.7% in tailoring paths to individual learners.
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- Open access
- Green open access
Cite this article
APA 7
Liu, Y., Liu, Z., Zhang, T., Cheng, Z., Guo, Y., Chen, K., Zhang, M., Wang, Y., & Wang, H. (2026). PersonaPath: Towards Knowledge-Centric Personalized Learning Path Planning. https://omanscience.com/en/articles/personapath-towards-knowledge-centric-personalized-learning-path-planning
MLA 9
Liu, Yu, et al. "PersonaPath: Towards Knowledge-Centric Personalized Learning Path Planning." https://omanscience.com/en/articles/personapath-towards-knowledge-centric-personalized-learning-path-planning.
Chicago (author–date)
Liu, Yu, Zeming Liu, Tianle Zhang, Zihao Cheng, Yuhang Guo, Kehai Chen, Min Zhang, Yunhong Wang, and Haifeng Wang. 2026. "PersonaPath: Towards Knowledge-Centric Personalized Learning Path Planning." https://omanscience.com/en/articles/personapath-towards-knowledge-centric-personalized-learning-path-planning.
Harvard
Liu, Y., Liu, Z., Zhang, T., Cheng, Z., Guo, Y., Chen, K., Zhang, M., Wang, Y. and Wang, H. (2026) 'PersonaPath: Towards Knowledge-Centric Personalized Learning Path Planning', Available at: https://omanscience.com/en/articles/personapath-towards-knowledge-centric-personalized-learning-path-planning.
Vancouver
Liu Y, Liu Z, Zhang T, Cheng Z, Guo Y, Chen K, et al. PersonaPath: Towards Knowledge-Centric Personalized Learning Path Planning. https://omanscience.com/en/articles/personapath-towards-knowledge-centric-personalized-learning-path-planning
IEEE
Y. Liu, Z. Liu, T. Zhang, Z. Cheng, Y. Guo, K. Chen, M. Zhang, Y. Wang, and H. Wang, "PersonaPath: Towards Knowledge-Centric Personalized Learning Path Planning," https://omanscience.com/en/articles/personapath-towards-knowledge-centric-personalized-learning-path-planning.