The purpose of this study was to examine whether teacher candidates with mastery- and performance-approach orientations would perceived their education courses as depicting a goal structure consistent with their personal orientations, use of self-regulatory strategies, and motivation for learning. A latent class analysis procedure was used to identify teacher candidates' goal orientations. The results of this study suggested that teacher candidates' perception of class structure, motivational beliefs, and self-regulation of learning differ as a function of their personal goal orientations. Evidently, with regard to teacher candidates all academic goals are not created equal. There are clear differences between the four groups of teacher candidates, identified by the latent class analysis. (Contains 3 tables and 3 figures.)