A content area literacy course is examined to assess how teacher educators might respond to prospective teachers' beliefs in light of the particular goals of a particular course or teacher education experience. Content Area Literacy is a methods course that emphasizes teaching strategies and the rationales underlying them. It is examined to reveal how to teach content to prospective teachers in light of their entering beliefs about learning and teaching that could affect their learning from the course. Analysis of three actual student cases in such a course lends support to the practical theory that students, for whom the teacher's assumptions were accurate, did learn from the course in the ways that the theory predicted. In general, findings suggest the need for and the benefits that would come from the integration of teaching and research. (Contains 14 references.) (NAV)