The central theme of this paper is that multimethod, multitrait research is essential to uncover learning beliefs and learning structures. The year-long social-ecological study clearly illustrated the efficacy of such a research process. This was a study of the elements of a kindergarten classroom environment and the beliefs that parents, teachers, and children had about school learning. A comparison was made of the beliefs and participation of Hispanic and Anglo children from low and middle income families. A person-environment interaction model provided the conceptual framework and shaped the multi-operational research strategies. Results indicated that parents, teachers, and children had different beliefs about classroom learning events, with parents shaping portions of both children's and teachers' beliefs. All children were preoccupied with rules and procedures for learning activities, especially low achievers. Achievers and low achievers differed markedly in the importance they attributed to learning events. Both low income and low-achieving students preferred cooperative learning activities. The discrepancies between learning beliefs and learning events were greater for Hispanic, low achieving, and low income students. Multiple operations analyses were instrumental in specifying the discordance between beliefs and the classroom teaching-learning structure. (MDE)