An introductory overview is presented of current Finnish and American research into secondary school teaching as both a moral and technical endeavor. The described research study sought a comprehensive view of what happens in a student teacher's professional development during teacher education. The following problems were researched: (1) what kind of individual qualities such as personality, attitudes toward teaching, the teaching profession and the teacher's role do secondary school student teachers have and what connections do these qualities have with their professional development; (2) what emotional processes and problems do students have concerning teaching practice and training when engaged in a teacher education program; (3) what cognitive processes does a teacher education program awaken in students and what are students' conceptions about the relevance of the teacher education curriculum to their eventual work as teachers; and (4) what interrelations exist between those three problem areas. (JD)