This study examined the effect of an experimental educational psychology course on preservice teachers' ideas about teaching. The experimental course immersed students in writing as a response to reading, writing to reflect on previous beliefs, and a teaching model to help students question their experiences and beliefs founded in previous school experience. The study investigated whether 20 preservice teachers would change their conceptions and attitudes about the importance of reading and writing across curriculum subject matter when immersed in a preservice 16-week course where writing to make sense and reflect, and talking, were central to their learning experiences. A pretest on attitudes and conceptions about the importance of reading, writing, and talking as a learning tool revealed no significant differences between subjects and controls. Writing samples prepared during the course indicated that, in a theoretical framework of teacher development, most students were at the first and second stages, "Naive Empiricism" and "Everyday Behaviorism." Students were generally positive about the importance of the writing and peer interaction, but these components did not show up in students' descriptions of a "good class." Experimental students reported that their ideas about how writing can transform thinking were more positive as a result of the immersion program. (Contains 30 references.) (JDD)