The purposes of this study were to analyze and describe metal finishing processes and to ascertain the extent to which these processes are taught in industrial teacher education programs. Handbooks and industrial literature were reviewed, and a survey of 165 teacher education departments was made to collect the data. Finishing processes were grouped as metal plating, anodic and chemical coating, film finishing, and polishing, and each are discussed in a descriptive, illustrated chapter. Instructional units on metal finishing were taught in 120 colleges in metal, general metal, or multiple activity courses; however, no college offered an entire course on this subject. Some findings from the college survey were: (1) general metals courses most often contain finishing units, (2) 63 colleges required industrial arts teachers to complete courses including metal finishing techniques, (3) only two colleges offer more than 10 semester hours of course work which contains such units, (4) technical manuals are the most used sources of instructional content on finishing, and (5) readings and projects are the most used student activities with oral presentation and demonstrations being the most used instructional approaches. This thesis was submitted to the University of Missouri. (EM)