This study tested the reliability of Lortie's (1975) "apprenticeship-of-observation" theory in the development of physical education teachers. The theory suggests that beginning teachers' socialization into teaching starts when they are students and serves to perpetuate traditions at the expense of reflective and informed change. Forty-nine physical education student teachers filled out report forms before and after a 10-week student teaching experience detailing "critical incidents" that were indicative of good or poor teaching. Analysis of data derived from these reports indicated that teachers became acquainted with the tasks of teaching during their apprenticeship-of-observation and that teachers appeared to begin their identification as teachers during their apprenticeship. Assessments of teaching technique were similar both prior to and after entry into the teaching role. Because the apprenticeship represented an analysis of personal experience, a teacher's analytic orientations toward the work of teacher were individualistic. It is concluded that physical education teachers, like their classroom counterparts, appear to serve an apprenticeship-of-observation while students in public schools. The apprenticeship period informs the prospective physical education teacher of the tasks of teaching, establishes assessment strategies for determining the quality of teaching, and provides the analytic orientation toward their professional work. (CB)