A COMPARISON OF INTERTEACHING AND LECTURE IN THE COLLEGE CLASSROOM

• Published in: Journal of applied behavior analysis Vol. 39; no. 1; pp. 49 - 61
• Main Authors: Saville, Bryan K., Zinn, Tracy E., Neef, Nancy A., Norman, Renee Van, Ferreri, Summer J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2006; Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior
• Subjects: Achievement; Adult; Behavior; Biological and medical sciences; Classroom management; Classrooms; College Instruction; Comparative Analysis; Cooperative learning; Course Content; education; Educational psychology; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Graduate Study; Higher Education; Humans; Instructional Effectiveness; interteaching; Lecture Method; Male; Methods Courses; Peer Teaching; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Psychopedagogics. Didactics; Reading; Research Methodology; Scores; Special Education; Student Interests; Students; Teachers; Teaching - methods; Tests; Universities; Human; college instruction; education; University; interteaching; Instruction; Comparative study; Teaching
• ISSN: 0021-8855; 1938-3703
• DOI: 10.1901/jaba.2006.42-05

Interteaching is a new method of classroom instruction that is based on behavioral principles but offers more flexibility than other behaviorally based methods. We examined the effectiveness of interteaching relative to a traditional form of classroom instruction—the lecture. In Study 1, participants in a graduate course in special education took short quizzes after alternating conditions of interteaching and lecture. Quiz scores following interteaching were higher than quiz scores following lecture, although both methods improved performance relative to pretest measures. In Study 2, we also alternated interteaching and lecture but counterbalanced the conditions across two sections of an undergraduate research methods class. After each unit of information, participants from both sections took the same test. Again, test scores following interteaching were higher than test scores following lecture. In addition, students correctly answered more interteaching‐based questions than lecture‐based questions on a cumulative final test. In both studies, the majority of students reported a preference for interteaching relative to traditional lecture. In sum, the results suggest that interteaching may be an effective alternative to traditional lecture‐based methods of instruction.