This study sought to determine the relations between generative teaching and student teachers' social maturity, receptivity to criticism, and ability to incorporate suggestions about their performance into their teaching. Profiles of "more effective" and "less effective" student teachers were compared with respect to generative teaching and personality characteristics. Participants were 97 elementary student teachers. The Generative Teaching Scale was developed, containing 21 items that measure preactive generative teaching behavior (instructional planning) and interactive generative teaching practices designed to promote students' generation of meaning from instruction. Results indicated that: (1) effective teaching strongly and positively related to ability to use generative teaching principles; and (2) effective generative teaching strongly and positively related to student teachers' social maturity, receptivity to criticism, and ability to incorporate suggestions from critiques into their teaching. Recommendations for teacher preparation and teacher selection are offered. (Contains 22 references.) (JDD)