The methods course presently in operation at Pennyslvania State University is organized around the achievement of performance criteria following a mastery learning model. Although conditions for demonstrating competency are specified by the instructors, students select the means for developing the competencies and follow their own schedule by completing formal learning contracts. This arrangement is called Structured Independent Study. The most exacting requirement demands that the student videotape, code, and critique two teaching performances in terms of prescribed teaching behaviors. Coding is accomplished with the Social Substantive Schedule, which assesses the congruence between a specified instructional mode and a teacher's verbal behavior. Preliminary results from comparing students in the experimental course with students in a traditional course indicate that although typical measures of course achievement did not discriminate between groups, experimental students spent significantly less time on the course and conferred with the instructor significantly more often than traditional students. Students rated the videotape evaluation as the most valuable course activity. (RT)