The issue of what educational research has illuminated to date about the universally accepted practice of student teaching is discussed in this paper. A critical review is provided of selected literature on student teaching within the context of two contrasting paradigms for conducting educational research: psychometric and social-anthropological. Most of the research that has been conducted falls within the dominant perspective of the psychometric paradigm under the following five major categories: (1) student teacher attitudes and personality characteristics; (2) the socialization of student teachers; (3) predictors of success in student teaching; (4) interpersonal relationships in student teaching; and (5) experimental attempts to modify student teacher behaviors. All of these categories are reviewed in depth. It is argued, however, that more emphasis should be placed on the social-anthropology paradigm. Extensive references are provided. (DS)