JUITA : Jurnal Informatika
JUITA Vol. 14 Issue 2, July 2026

Optimizing Small-Data Learning in Elementary Education: An Explainable Restricted Random Forest Approach for Early Warning

Supriyanto Supriyanto (Universitas Ahmad Dahlan)
Ragil Dian Purnama Putri (Universitas Ahmad Dahlan)



Article Info

Publish Date
15 Jul 2026

Abstract

The delayed identification of students at risk of academic underperformance frequently undermines the effectiveness of pedagogical interventions. This limitation arises because most traditional models for predicting student performance depend on exhaustive end-of-semester datasets, engendering a latency issue wherein insights emerge too late for timely remediation. To overcome this, we propose an Explainable Early Warning System that forecasts students' Final Year Mathematics Assessment scores using exclusively mid-semester data: Daily Assessments and Mid-Semester Assessments. By utilizing an augmented dataset of 68 students, hybrid data augmentation to fix class imbalance, and a Restricted Random Forest model to prevent overfitting, our method achieves a strong 92.3% classification accuracy on unseen test data. Remarkably, it achieves 100% Recall for the 'Need Guidance' class, ensuring no at-risk students are overlooked. Furthermore, SHAP analysis reveals that, beyond midterm scores, consistency in specific daily tasks, particularly Daily Assessment Chapter 4 significantly impacts failure risk. In conclusion, combining data augmentation with explainable machine learning transforms predictions into actionable pedagogical insights, empowering teachers to execute precise interventions three months prior to the final exam.

Copyrights © 2026






Journal Info

Abbrev

JUITA

Publisher

Subject

Computer Science & IT

Description

UITA: Jurnal Informatika is a science journal and informatics field application that presents articles on thoughts and research of the latest developments. JUITA is a journal peer reviewed and open access. JUITA is published by the Informatics Engineering Study Program, Universitas Muhammadiyah ...