A Comparison of Interteaching and the Learning Pathway in a Community Health Undergraduate Course

Abstract

Health promotion undergraduate courses frequently use active learning strategies in an attempt to ensure that future health professionals are prepared to improve population health outcomes. One teaching method with limited research in health promotion courses at the undergraduate level is interteaching (IT). IT is based on behavior analytic techniques and uses paired discussion and student-informed clarifying lectures to teach course objectives. A number of studies suggest that IT is more effective than traditional teaching methods (i.e., lecture). However, research is needed to compare IT with other active learning strategies (i.e., strategies that foster critical thinking by engaging students in analysis, synthesis, and evaluation through discussion and active student responding) and in new subject areas. The present study compared IT with an active learning strategy known as the Learning Pathway (LP) in an undergraduate community health education/promotion planning course. The LP uses group work and guided self-instruction to help students address a societal issue of their choice. Results indicate that students performed slightly higher on multiple-choice quizzes during the IT condition and correctly answered more fill-in-the-blank midterm and final exam questions related to content covered in the IT condition. However, students indicated that they preferred the LP teaching method. Although further research is needed to investigate active learning strategies that are most effective on various outcomes in health promotion courses, this study suggests that IT may be more effective than the LP on teaching course objectives as measured by quiz scores.