Validity evidence was gathered for the Academic Entitlement Questionnaire (AEQ). After reviewing entitlement literature, items were written to cover the breadth of academic entitlement. Results provide evidence for the substantive, structural, and external aspects of validity of the AEQ. Implications for research and use of the AEQ are discussed.

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.

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.

Although syllabi provide students with important course information, they can also affect perceptions of teaching effectiveness. To test this idea, we distributed 2 versions of a hypothetical course syllabus, a brief version and a detailed version, and asked students to rate the teacher of the course on qualities associated with master teaching. Students in the detailed syllabus group rated the teacher as possessing more of these qualities; they were also more likely to report that they would recommend the course to others and take another course from the teacher. Thus, in addition to serving a communicative function, a detailed syllabus might signal to students that their teacher is competent and wants them to do well.

Although previous studies have found interteaching to be an effective alternative to traditional methods of instruction, few studies have examined which of its components contribute to its effectiveness. In the current study, we examined whether manipulating quality points had an effect on our students' exam scores. In two sections of an undergraduate general psychology course, we used interteaching but alternated between quality points and no quality points several times throughout the semester; we also counterbalanced the order of presentation across sections. We found that quality points did not have an effect on exam scores.

Because it employs an emergent-learning framework, equivalence-based instruction (EBI) is said to be highly efficient, but its presumed benefits must be compared quantitatively with alternative techniques. In a randomized controlled trial, 61 college students attempted to learn 32 pairs of proprietary and generic drug names using computer-based match-to-sample presentations of auditory and written drug names. Students who received EBI experienced pairings based on stimulus equivalence theory, and they mastered the material quickly. Control-group students practiced relations drawn at random from those that the EBI group learned via training or emergence. Students in the criterion-control group required many more trials to achieve the same accuracy as the EBI group. By way of a yoking procedure, students in the trial-control group received the same number of trials as the EBI students but achieved poorer accuracy and little mastery. Thus, EBI was more efficient and effective than unstructured presentation.

No abstract

This chapter describes a new behavior‐analytic teaching method called interteaching and the growing body of research showing that interteaching is more effective than traditional teaching methods.