One of the primary goals of teacher education is to aid preservice candidates in formulating a personal philosophy of teaching that is research-based. Teacher candidates should recognize that their philosophy of teaching and learning must be grounded in research-affirmed theory, certain dimensions of which (e.g., motivation) are critical to student success. Such a theory into practice stance must be transparent in teacher candidates' preservice courses and modeled by instructors. This study used content analysis (Krippendorff, 2013) to investigate one such instance of modeling theory into practice through the use of self-determination theory as the framework for a preservice mathematics course for preservice teachers of grades 7 to 12.