WHEN INSTRUCTIONAL
GUIDANCE IS NEEDED?
Ouhao Chen
Educational Psychology Research Group
University of New South Wales
STRUCTURE OF PRESENTATION
1. The boundary of the worked example effect and the
generation effect
2. The relations between the worked example effect
and the generation effect
3. When instructional guidance is needed
BASIC CONCEPTS
Element interactivity
The worked example effect
The generation effect
ELEMENT INTERACTIVITY
An index of difficulty of learning materials
Low element interactivity: Cu
High element interactivity: x+5=8
Learner expertise
THE WORKED EXAMPLE EFFECT
Worked examples which show solutions are superior
to problem solving which shows no solutions.
High guidance is superior to low guidance
High element interactivity
THE GENERATION EFFECT
Generation which provides no guidance is superior to
presentation which provides full guidance
Low guidance is superior to high guidance
Low element interactivity
RESEARCH QUESTION
High guidance outperformances low guidance when
considering the worked example effect
Low guidance outperformances high guidance when
talking about the generation effect
When guidance is needed?
HYPOTHESES
In order to test the worked example effect: materials
that high in element interactivity should be used
For the generation effect, materials that low in element
interactivity may be used
With the increase of expertise, the generation effect
may be found for all materials with no sign of the
worked example effect
EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN
The first phase:
half participants were in generation group, the other
half in presentation group;
10 minutes: self-study all formulae;
10 minutes: generaion/presentation;
8minutes: free recall test
The second phase:
half participants from generation and presentation
formed to be the worked example group; the other half
to be problem solving group
10 minutes: review all formulae
10minutes: study worked examples or problem solving
8 minutes: similar transfer test
EXPERIMENT 1
Year 4 students used to learning geometry
Basic formulae used to test the generation effect
Calculating the area of composite shapes and shading
parts used to test the worked example effect
EXPERIMENT 3
Year 7 students were used as participants who were
more knowledgeable than the participants used in
experiment1
The materials were similar to what were used in
experiment 1
RESULTS
Complex materials (high element interactivity) were for
the worked example effect
Simple materials (low element interactivity) were for
the generation effect
We got a perfect expertise reversal effect
FURTHER QUESTIONS
Whether the advantage of worked examples and
generation could be durable?
What else interesting results we may obtain?
EXPERIMENT 4
Year 10 students were used as participants to study
trigonometry
Basic formulae were used to test the generation effect
Simplify trigonometry expressions were used to test
the worked example effect
EXPERIMENT 5
Year 11 students were used as participants to study
trigonometry
The same experimental design and materials used in
this experiment
RESULTS
We found the worked example and generation effects
on delayed test for experiment 4, and we got both
effects on immediate and delayed tests for experiment
5
We also got the expertise reversal effect concerning
the worked example effect
EXPERIMENT 2
Year 6 students used to learning geometry formulae
and solve geometry problems (the area of composite
shape)
Geometry formulae used to test the generation effect
Geometry problems used to test the worked example
effect
RESULTS
the generation effect was obtained with studying
formulae (low element interactivity)
A possible worked example effect was found for
solving geometry problems (p=.06)
DISCUSSION (EXP. 2,4,5)
Level of expertise of year 6 is between the level of year
4 and 7, therefore, they had formed relevenat schemas,
but not mature enough, so external guidance was still
needed
learning technics which can improve performance may
have durable effect
GENERAL DISCUSSION
Generation effect is for materials low in element
interactivity (simple materials)
Worked example effect is for complex materials
Level of guidance is dependent on level of element
interactivity
EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS
In our textbook, simple and complex learning contents
are all included. In order to teach well, we may treat
different kinds of materials separately.
It would be better to ask students to generate answers
for simple materials, while, high level of guidance
should be presented for complex materials.
FUTURE STUDIES

Other cognitive load effects will be tested, such as
isolated-element effect and fading procedure effect;

The relation between the expertise reversal effect and
element interactivity effect will be further considered.
REFERENCES
Sweller, J., Van Merrienboer, J. J., & Paas, F. G. (1998). Cognitive architecture
and instructional design. Educational psychology review, 10(3), 251-296.
Sweller, J., Ayes, P., & Kalyuga, S. (2011). Cognitive Load Theory. New York.
Ouhao Chen, Slava Kalyuga & John Sweller (2015). The worked example effect,
the generation effect, and element interactivity. Journal of Educational
Psychology, 689-704. (SSCI)
Ouhao Chen, Slava Kalyuga & John Sweller (Under Review). When instructional
is needed. Instructional Science. (SSCI)
Ouhao Chen, Slava Kalyuga & John Sweller (Under Review). The
relations between the worked example and generation effects on
immediate and delayed tests. Cognition and Instruction. (SSCI)
Ouhao Chen, Slava Kalyuga & John Sweller (In Preparation). The
expertise reversal effect is a variant of more general element
interactivity effect. Educational Psychology Review. (SSCI)