This qualitative study explored college teaching in an "apprenticeship" setting, specifically the architectural design studio. The study examined studio teachers' efforts to design effective project assignments and to help students move successfully through those assignments. Two design teachers were interviewed and observed as their students worked for 10 weeks on an urban design problem. The study's findings addressed both project design and teaching strategies. The study found that a good project assignment serves multiple purposes; rests in a theoretical frame that can be generalized to other problems; builds on and meshes with the existing curriculum while providing new opportunities as well; is prototypic; employs the studio product as a learning technique itself; and uses project presentations not only to communicate results but as a way for thinking through the design process. Strategies for helping students learn from project assignments include making arrangements so students can engage and pursue the task, influencing how students think about the problem, diagnosing students' progress and shaping their problem, structuring the project requirements, simultaneously opening its opportunities and focusing students' thinking, and improvising. (Author/JDD)