Learning to Revise Reasoning with Segment-wise On-Policy Distillation

Abstract:On-policy distillation (OPD) improves large language model reasoning by training students on their own rollouts with dense token-wise supervision from the teacher. However, token-wise OPD does not explicitly provide a coherent alternative reasoning step showing how the student's step could be revised to improve subsequent reasoning. Furthermore, this paradigm can become less effective when the student produces a degenerate reasoning prefix, as subsequent teacher supervision remains conditioned on that prefix and may reinforce poor reasoning patterns. In this work, we focus on learning reasoning revision with segment-wise OPD to rework intermediate reasoning steps and better support subsequent reasoning. Through controlled reasoning interventions, we find that replacing student segments with teacher redrafts improves subsequent reasoning accuracy. Therefore, we address the problem of turning teacher redrafts into explicit supervision for learning to revise reasoning. We propose Segment-wise On-Policy Distillation (Seg-OPD), which selects student segments based on an uncertainty metric and obtains corresponding teacher redrafts. Seg-OPD trains the student to prefer teacher redrafts over their paired student segments while retaining dense token-wise OPD supervision. Extensive experiments on mathematical reasoning and competitive programming tasks show that Seg-OPD-trained students achieve higher revision success rates than baselines. Seg-OPD consistently outperforms the compared state-of-the-art baselines in reasoning accuracy with an average relative improvement of 5.22% across diverse models and tasks. Code is available at this https URL.

Artificial Intelligence (cs.AI)

arXiv:2610.02703 [cs.AI]

(or arXiv:2610.02703v1 [cs.AI] for this version)

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2610.02703 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration)

arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website.

Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them.

Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs.