Despite conflicting strategies for shifts in decision-making power in educating and licensing teachers, various studies of teacher education agree on the need for experimentation in teacher education and uncertainty with respect to what knowledge is most pertinent to the professional preparation of teachers. Newer developments in the systematic study of teaching represent points on a continuum starting with purely descriptive studies of teaching but advancing to controlled investigations which yield broad generalizations. A proposal for utilizing present descriptive studies of teaching for improving teacher education merits attention; it suggests that teacher candidates emulate the mode of inquiry of researchers in a clinical approach to direct study of ongoing teaching. Examination of the general nature of scientific theory suggests the possible anatomy of a theory of teaching. Controlled investigations of teaching subsequently will yield broad, predictive generalizations which will be fashioned into multiple theories to constitute a corpus of knowledge with demonstrable power to describe, explain, and control various dimensions of teaching. Such knowledge may clarify the points of convergence and relevance of ancillary disciplines like psychology, sociology, and philosophy to the educational process. Such knowledge ultimately will become the principal substantive content of the professional education of teachers. (A 14-item bibliography is appended.) (Author/SG)