Citation
Chen, Ouhao, Slava Kalyuga, and John Sweller. When Instructional Guidance is Needed. The Educational and Developmental Psychologist, 2016.
What it says
- This paper contrasts conditions where generation is useful with conditions where worked examples and stronger instructional guidance are more effective.
- The article frames the difference partly in terms of task complexity and learner knowledge.
- It reinforces the worked-example effect for more complex tasks and aligns with the broader expertise-reversal literature.
Why it matters here
- It supports using worked examples and scaffolding when technical tasks are new, cognitively complex, or high in element interactivity.
- It fits the project's capability-aware stance: not every learner benefits from the same amount of generation or independence at the same time.
Limitations
- This is not an AI enablement study and not a workplace field intervention.
- The setting is educational rather than software-delivery practice.
Project takeaways
- Use more guidance when tasks are new and cognitively dense.
- Reduce guidance carefully as oversight and familiarity improve.