Discussions on how best to improve the professional status of teaching are necessarily based on certain consciously or subconsciously held assumptions of what the terms "profession" and "teaching" are. As a result, disagreements regarding the best way to improve teaching may be more the result of a difference in definition of these two terms than the best way to apply a commonly held view. This paper suggests a typology of definitions for both terms which can be used as an analytical tool for evaluating not only the present professional status of teaching, but also how such status may change as a result of changing definitions. Following an analysis of various definitions of "teaching" and "profession," this paper concludes that teacher training institutions can facilitate the elevation of teaching to professional status by reorganizing teacher training around a knowledge base that rests on testing and research and which has as its focus the improvement of students' academic achievement. (Author/IAH)