Interteaching and the Testing Effect

Abstract

A growing body of research has shown that taking tests can result in enhanced learning, a phenomenon known as the testing effect. The purpose of this study was to examine whether the addition of postdiscussion quizzes to interteaching, a new behavior-analytic teaching method, produced a similar effect. Students in two sections of an undergraduate psychology of learning course participated in interteaching sessions and took postdiscussion quizzes prior to some of their exams. The authors found that students who took the quizzes had exam scores that were not significantly different from the exam scores of students who did not take the quizzes. These results provide additional evidence that including postdiscussion quizzes in interteaching may not produce a testing effect. This may be because interteaching already contains components that enhance student learning.