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This study investigated (a) the relationships among student and group characteristics, group interaction, and achievement in small groups in junior high school mathematics classrooms, and (b) the stability of these relationships over time. One hundred and five students in four classrooms participated in two studies. All students first learned a unit on consumer mathematics. Three months later, half the students learned a unit on area and perimeter, and the other half learned a 1-week unit on probability. Interaction in the group was a potent predictor of achievement in all studies; asking a question and receiving no answer, the best predictor, was detrimental to achievement. The best predictor of interaction in the group was group composition: The frequency of asking questions and receiving no answer was higher in uniform-ability groups than in mixed-ability groups. Group interaction tended to be stable over time, both in average frequency and in individual students’ relative levels of participation.
Webb et al. (Sat,) studied this question.