Based on an approach that analyzes the structure of educational processes in relation to the structure of its outcome, this paper develops the argument that the function that a specific environment fulfills depends critically on who is in control within the environment, and suggests how the implications of this argument might be tested. The hypothesis is that an educational purpose will be most effectively accomplished when control of the teaching-learning process is congruent with the control of the thought-action intended as an educational outcome. To present the theory, teacher, joint teacher-and-learner, and learner control are analyzed as process, and the control of community, competence, and individuation are analyzed as three categories of outcomes. Because the problem has not been conceptualized in tri-parte terms before, no single research study is considered to contain the full range of necessary distinctions. Control is seen to be one of the dimensions through which an analysis of the relationship between teaching-learning processes and outcomes can be made. A structural analysis of control is found to reveal limitations in past research on classrooms. (Author/AM)