This study was conducted to examine the influences of prior school experience on student teachers' thinking. It includes descriptions of students' prior school experiences and an intervention in which students were asked to reflect on and re-evaluate those experiences. Beliefs about education, learning, self worth, abilities, and the development of gender identity were investigated. Six student teachers, three male and three female, were interviewed twice, once at the beginning of the project and once at the end. The interviews included identical and specific questions about prior school experiences and how those events related to an understanding of the teacher's role and work. A support group was then established in which similarities and differences in experiences were discussed. It was clear that all of the student teachers had acquired at least some awareness of the influence of their prior school experiences. Teacher education programs must offer trainees an opportunity to reflect on the experience of being a student in order to break the cycle of students becoming teachers who replicate the forms of teaching which may have so limited their own lives. (LL)