Interteaching Versus Traditional Methods of Instruction: A preliminary analysis
Bryan K. Saville
Tracy E. Zinn
Marcus P. Elliott
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.
Keywords
Annotation
This study examines the effectiveness of interteaching as compared to traditional methods of instruction. Interteaching is similar to personal system of instruction (PSI) but attempts to negate some of the drawbacks of PSI. Specifically, interteaching does not require mastery learning, students are self-paced during each course meeting rather than across the semester, a focus on student discussion reduces the burden on teacher resources, and as teachers still lecture and facilitate discussion, they are a more active and visible player in the learning process. Participants were broken up into four groups consisting of interteaching, lecture, reading and control, and were quizzed on the content covered. Findings show that students in the interteaching group answered a statistically significantly greater percentage of questions correctly, suggesting that interteaching “might be an effective alternative to other traditional forms of instruction” (p. 162). The authors note “the combination of features that (a) requires active learning, (b) capitalizes on immediate social reinforcement from peers and instructor, (c)creates a clear cooperative learning environment, and (d) provides a clear relation between study and test materials likely facilitates learning and results in better retention than the other methods we tested” (p. 162).
APA Citation
Saville, B. K., Zinn, T. E., & Elliott, M. P. (2005). Interteaching versus traditional methods of instruction: A preliminary analysis. Teaching of Psychology, 32(3), 161-163.
About the Study
| Links to Article | https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Interteaching+vs.+traditional+methods+of+Instruction:+A+preliminary+analysis&hl=en&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart |
| Mode | |
| Publication Type | Journal Article |
| In Publication | Teaching of Psychology |
| Type of Research | Other |
| Research Design | Experiments |
| Intervention/Areas of Study | Active learning, Adaptive learning, Collaborative, group, or team-based learning, Content-student interactions, Course and program evaluation, Course design, Course organization, Faculty and professional development and/or training, Instructor-student interactions, Personalized learning, Self-paced learning, Student readiness, Student support, Student-student interactions |
| Level of Analysis | Student-level |
| Specific Populations Examined | Undergraduates |
| Peer-Reviewed | Yes |
| Specific Institutional Characteristics of Interest | 4-year Institution, Bachelors-granting |
| Specific Course or Program Characteristics | Arts and humanities, Formal sciences, Natural sciences, Social sciences, STEM |
| Outcome Variables of Interest | Academic achievement or performance, including assessment scores and course grades, Institutional effectiveness, Instructional effectiveness, Learning effectiveness, Program effectiveness |
| Student Sample Size | 0-99 |
| Citing Articles | https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cites=10591869337480075285&as_sdt=5,50&sciodt=0,50&hl=en |
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