This document, intended to accompany "Analytic Summaries of Specifications for Model Teacher Education Programs" (SP 003 719), provides a basic introduction to the techniques of educational planning which were used in developing the ten models. General principles of models, system analysis, and behavioral learning systems are presented in concise outline-discussion form and are then illustrated with examples drawn from the field of teacher education, in general, and the ten USOE-sponsored models, in particular. Among the subjects treated are: (1) kinds of models(symbolic, mechanical, biological, cybernetic, economic); (2) characteristics of a good model (five evaluative criteria); (3) systems theory and various approaches to it (subsystems, input-output models, and models based on the heuristic approach); (4) six steps in the process of systems analysis; (5) typical constraints on systems planning and teacher education programs; (6) the essential relationship between information and systems theory; and (7) the ways these elements were combined to develop models appropriate to teacher training programs. It is emphasized throughout the document that the models have been developed as guidelines, rather than prescriptions, for planning as institutions develop programs relevant to their particular characteristics, capabilities, and needs. (JES)