Learning Through Dialogue: Engagement and Efficacy Matter More Than Explanations

ArXi:2601.07796v2 Announce Type: replace Large language models (LLMs) are increasingly used as conversational partners for learning, yet the interactional dynamics ing users' learning and engagement are understudied. We analyze the linguistic and interactional features from both LLM and participant chats across 397 human-LLM conversations about socio-political issues to identify the mechanisms and conditions under which LLM explanations shape changes in political knowledge and confidence.