This paper identifies some basic propositions regarding teacher preparation utilized by a curriculum development team in the development of a competency-based teacher education curriculum in reading and language arts. The propositions underlying this development effort had their genesis in the research and literature in teacher education, were selected by an interdisciplinary and interinstitutional group of educators, and have been operationalized in Project RELATE. These propositions have implications as guidelines for the development and use of teacher training materials. It is recommended that educators adopt, use, and research these and other propositions in an effort to identify and thereby give further direction to the development of teacher training materials. An 18-item bibliography is included. (Author)