Interteaching versus Traditional Methods of Instruction: A Preliminary Analysis

Abstract

Interteaching is a new pedagogical method based on behavior-analytic principles; it includes elements of Keller's (1968) Personalized System of Instruction, reciprocal peer tutoring, and cooperative learning. We examined the effectiveness of interteaching relative to more traditional methods of instruction in a controlled laboratory setting. We randomly assigned participants to 1 of 4 conditions: interteaching, lecture, reading, or control. Participants in the interteaching group performed significantly better on a short multiple-choice quiz than participants in the other groups. Our results suggest that interteaching may be an effective alternative to other methods of classroom instruction.

Interteaching: Bringing Behavioral Education Into the 21st Century

“…As noted previously, a growing body of research suggests that interteaching might be an effective and enjoyable alternative to more traditional pedagogical arrangements (Goto & Schneider, 2009;Saville et al, 2005Saville et al, , 2006. As with any new area of research, though, there is still extensive room for examination and a vast set of questions that have yet to be answered.…”

“…Saville, Zinn, and Elliott (2005) conducted the first systematic investigation of interteaching, a lab-based study that compared interteaching to more traditional teaching methods. They randomly assigned students to one of four conditions-interteaching, lecture, reading, or control-and exposed students in the first three conditions to material from an article on pet ownership and health (Allen, 2003).…”

“…Sidman also discussed the importance of systematic replication, in which a researcher examines whether a phenomenon occurs under conditions that differ from those prevailing in the original experiment. Although we have used interteaching in a number of our undergraduate and graduate courses, the researchers who have thus far published their findings on interteaching have used relatively small convenience samples consisting of introductory psychology students (see Saville et al, 2005;Saville & Zinn, 2009), students in undergraduate research methods courses (Saville et al, 2006, Study 2), or students in a graduate-level special education course (Saville et al, 2006, Study 1). It would therefore be interesting to examine whether interteaching produces similar results in other types of psychology courses-large, survey-level courses; smaller, capstone-level courses; graduate-level seminars; and even distance-learning courses.…”

A Comparison of Interteaching and Lecture in the College Classroom

“…Interteaching includes elements of PSI and precision teaching as well as elements from other empirically based instructional methods such as reciprocal peer tutoring (Griffin & Griffin, 1998), cooperative learning (e.g., Halpern, 2004), and problembased learning (e.g., Duch, Groh, & Allen, 2001). Moreover, interteaching attempts to remedy several of the purported problems with other behavioral approaches to classroom instruction (Boyce & Hineline, 2002;Saville, Zinn, & Elliott, 2005). For example, because interteaching, unlike PSI, does not require students to master course content, grade distributions are less likely to be negatively skewed.…”

“…In a recent study, Saville et al (2005) examined the effectiveness of interteaching relative to other more traditional methods of instruction in a controlled laboratory setting. They randomly assigned 84 college students to one of four conditions-interteaching, lecture, reading, or a control condition.…”