Potential contributions of research on classroom contexts to preservice teacher education curriculum are outlined in this paper. A review of traditional teacher effectiveness research cites studies that either extrapolated from laboratory research to design a teaching model or used direct classroom observations to correlate behaviors to outcomes without considering situational variables. The inadequacies of each approach are discussed, and the features of classroom context research are introduced. The emphasis of the studies is on classroom management and decision making. An analysis of findings on academic tasks suggests two conclusions: (1) Tasks provide a structure within which students perceive and interpret teaching events; and (2) Different types of tasks are associated with different configurations of classroom processes. Successful efforts at clarifying the management tasks are cited. The conclusion states the basic argument of the paper: that contexts pose tasks which shape information processes. (FG)