What opportunities did students have to participate in science learning activities?
Each guiding question was then explored through a set of four to fifteen more specific questions. Although this is a study of classroom teaching, the focus of analysis was placed on students and the ways in which teaching actions provided different kinds of opportunities for students to learn science. This focus on student opportunity to learn fits well with the research literature on student thinking and learning, and with one of the key stimuli for the study-the differences in student achievement as evidenced on TIMSS 1995 and 1999 assessments (Martin et al. 2000).
