Pertinent to potential recommendations for communication training in teacher preparation, a study investigated prospective teachers' intended use of communication control strategies in managing student misbehaviors. As an extension of previous instructional research, a typology of common student misbehavior types (active/passive) and intensity (moderate/severe) was formulated. The subjects, 115 elementary and secondary school prospective teachers, were asked to project their use of behavior alteration techniques (BATs) in four separate scenarios reflecting this typology. The results showed that the inexperienced teachers relied on only two strategies to modify student misbehavior--self-esteem and teacher feedback--regardless of misbehavior type or intensity. In addition, the results indicated that neither the student's gender nor the teacher's anticipated level of teaching meaningfully influenced reports of intended BAT use. The findings suggest that teacher preparation should provide preteachers with early experiences in actual classroom management so that they may be able to more successfully meet the professional demands for optimal classroom management. (EL)