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)