20 Years of Interteaching Research and Practice: A Tutorial for its Use in the Classroom

Rosales et al. (2024) looked back at 20 years of college classes that used interteaching. They pulled together all the how-to steps and the data on whether students learned more.

The paper is a tutorial, not a new experiment. It tells teachers exactly what to copy: prep guides, five-minute pair talks, and quick instructor clarifications.

Across dozens of studies, students in interteaching classes scored higher on quizzes and rated the class more favorably than students in lecture classes.

The gains showed up in psychology, statistics, and behavior-analysis courses. Most classes needed only one or two prep guides per week.

Paul et al. (1987) ran the first big class-wide peer tutoring study in first- and second-grade spelling. Interteaching takes the same kids-teach-kids logic and moves it up to college.

Jameson et al. (2008) showed that middle-school peers can run constant-time-delay trials for classmates with intellectual disabilities. Interteaching uses peers too, but the goal is mastering course content, not discrete skills.

Nah et al. (2024) tested short animated videos to teach college students about autism. Both papers target young adults in college, yet interteaching relies on live peer talk while the video study used passive media.

If you teach RBT coursework, BCBA electives, or supervise university practicum, interteaching gives you a plug-and-play format. Swap one lecture a week for a prep guide and ten minutes of pair discussion. Students talk more, you talk less, and quiz scores rise.