Abstract:
Traditional university course and lecture formats been critiqued for failing to address important learning aspects in tertiary education. Behavioural analysts have proposed a number of approaches to provide contingencies and prompts to increase behaviours such as critical thinking, memory retrieval and retention, and response to assessment, that are important to student learning in tertiary settings. Interteach is an alternative method of teaching that incorporates a number of behavioural approaches that aim to address these behaviours. This study used an alternating treatment design to compare interteach to traditional lecture methods, and to a choral response condition that controlled for the higher levels of preparation time shown in interteach. Behavioural observation data on passive ontask (orient-towards), active on-task (reading, writing, and on-task communication) and offtask (i.e. orient away, off-task communication, phone, and sleep) behaviour was recorded. In addition, self-report measures on quality, satisfaction, and preparation time were also collected. Lastly, a short-answer questions were provided post-lecture, and students’ writing was analysed for the number of concepts covered in their responses. The results contribute to interteach literature by demonstrating that interteach lectures had higher active on-task behaviours, and greater preparation time relative to traditional and choral response conditions. As choral response conditions did not result in increased preparation time, the effect of this component of interteach could not be analysed. In contrast to prior research, self-report data showed similar levels of quality and satisfaction ratings between lecture styles. Social validity suggested preference for traditional lectures, however this may have been due to limitations of the study. The analysis of written answers demonstrates a greater number of concepts covered in responses following interteach relative to both traditional and choral response lectures. This suggests potential benefits of interteach to student writing, however future research needs to be conducted in order to explore this further.
