ABSTRACT

This chapter analyzes the effects of classroom intellectual composition on several affective, motivation-related variables and assesses their intervening role in the relationship between student-body composition and academic achievement. It addresses whether a psychological price is indeed indicated in the student's affective domain when classroom composition is improved; whether this price varies with respect to different dimensions of this domain. The chapter describes whether it differs for strong and weak students and whether it is related to academic achievement. There is evidence that self-reported attitudes straightforwardly derived are better predictors of academic achievement than are needs, motives and traits, usually elicited through projective techniques. The chapter investigates an analysis of existing research concerning the affective motivational domain with respect to separation and mixing. It also describes an inquiry of the affective motivational dimension using Israeli samples: first as a variable dependent on classroom composition, and then as an intervening variable.