Students come to teacher preparation programs with well-formed, influential cognitive constructs about teaching; they come with a variety of constructs; and these constructs can be identified and accessed. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) appears to be a way to access the constructs students hold. Subjects were 52 beginning teacher education program students. Two instruments were administered to the subjects during the first two weeks of classes: a survey form developed for the study and the MBTI. The types of data collected included: demographic data, teaching level, and subject area; responses to open-ended questions about subjects' background, prior teaching experiences, choice of teaching as a career, and teacher role model; the rank-ordering of 11 statements about the primary role of the teacher--what they valued most and would seek to emphasize in their classrooms; and personality types, with particular reference to perception and preferences. To effectively prepare students to become teachers, teacher educators must take into account students' different, persistent, stongly-held pre-existing cognitive constructs about teaching. (IAH)