Student teachers were observed at their practicum sites and in their university courses to determine the relationship of education courses to field experiences in an elementary education program designed to integrate these two components. The curriculum and nature of instruction found at the practicum sites were highly structured, predetermined, and mechanistic. Bringing children to a certain academic level within a prespecified time period appeared to be the purpose of schooling, and the emphasis was predominately on reading. Most students' major concern was on the product, not the process, of education. Most professors in the university classes supported the emphasis on the basic skills approach to reading, as well as the emphasis on organization and a managerial conception of teaching. A passive attitude toward curriculum development was supported in most education courses. Professors rarely asked students to seriously question what was important to teach in different subject areas. Students were encouraged to see that their job, as teachers, was to implement, not design, curriculum. Philosophical, social, and political criteria upon which curriculum decisions are based are discussed, and their implications for teacher education are examined. Four pages of references are included. (JD)