Aptitude-Treatment Interaction Effects of Three Social Studies Teaching Approaches

Study 1 investigated naturally occurring aptitude-treatment interactions (ATI) with three teaching approaches: lecture-recitation, inquiry, and public issues discussion. Study 2 attempted to replicate these ATI in a short-term study. Teachers taught social studies to ninth-grade students according to one approach. Students completed aptitude measures at the beginning of each study and achievement measures at the end. Results indicated that when an experimenter-constructed test was the outcome, the lecture-recitation approach was superior. But relative effectiveness of the approaches also depended on students’ ability and level of conformance. When the measure of student performance was based on objectives of the approach, the results showed an ATI for ability × anxiety that was partially replicated across studies.