This study investigated the empirical structure underlying students' perceptions of their teachers' behaviors in terms of the amount of control displayed in the regulation of students' learning activities. A group of 2,061 Dutch secondary school students taught by 67 teachers completed a 14-item survey that examined their perceptions. Data analysis indicated that students distinguished between three types of teacher control. These included: strong teacher control, mainly consisting of teachers providing students with strategies to perform their learning activities; shared teacher control, emphasizing the sharing of responsibility between students and between students and teachers; and loose control, focusing on students' own decision making during the performance of learning activities. The shared control factor included items that referred to situations in which students were asked to work cooperatively as well as items that referred to situations in which students showed initiative during whole class situations. (Contains 32 references.) (SM)