Evidence from followup studies of teacher education graduates indicates that teachers do not value certain major components of their teacher education programs and do not really remember or know what their teacher education programs attempted to teach them. While educational experts cite the extensiveness and comprehensiveness of teacher education programs, teacher candidates consistently devalue the usefulness of the programs, demand change, and apparently want more courses added. This paper explores the problem of why there is such a dysfunction between the teacher education program and the teacher candidates' perceptions of the program's usefulness. A cognitive developmental approach to teacher education is recommended, based on the work of William Perry, who described intellectual and ethical development as occurring in a sequence of stages, each representing a qualitatively different structure or set of assumptions for perceiving knowledge and values. A curriculum is outlined that would match program content with the stage of the student's cognitive development. (JD)