An operational test of a three-factor theory of classroom social perception

To test the cross-cultural generalizability of measures of student perception of the social enviornment of learning and an operationalization of the social environment of learning and an operationalization of a three-factor theory of the social-psychological properties of small groups (Moos-Bales), the mean end-of-course achievement scores of 166 groups of studious and nonstudies members of 83 general science classes randomly sampled in the State of Rajasthan, India, were regressed on group perception of affect, task orientation, and competitveness (derived from scales of the Learning Enviornment Inventory, LEI, translated into Hindi) and control variables–school and teacher characteristics, and student IQ sex, and socioeconomic status. Nine variables selected for unique contribution to accountable variance in achievement included the four perceptual factors, produced a multiple correlation R of .86, and a cross-validated R of .83 in an independent sample of 67 social studies casses.