A primary goal of all teacher educators is to provide preservice teachers with meaningful professional development opportunities that will help them succeed in making the transition into their own classrooms. Through these experiences, individuals develop the requisite knowledge and skills to become effective classroom leaders capable of implementing the national reform agenda. The challenge of preparing future teachers to serve as catalysts for transforming our nation's schools, however, is a formidable one. Teacher educators can begin to develop teacher leaders capable of implementing this reform through implementing professional development experiences that focus on research. One such experience is commonly found in teacher education programs: the teaching philosophy statement. This document takes teachers' beliefs on teaching and learning and supports them with what research indicates as effective practice. An approach to implementing ongoing teacher reflection and research-based strategies with the use of the rationale is described here. (Contains 1 figure.)