Two projects in the teacher education program at Seton Hall University gave assignments involving basic qualitative research methods as applied to a focused goal of interaction between future teachers and their students. The first project focused on life in community residential programs for adults with developmental disabilities, and the second on senior student teachers who interviewed adolescent girls with disabilities about self-esteem. Each project is described, including course requirements, what was learned through the assignment, student self-reflections on the study subjects they interviewed and the data gathering and interview processes they used, and how the instructors' teaching was affected during the semester. Both studies offered future special education teachers the opportunity to spend time with persons with disabilities in nontraditional teacher/student roles. The studies also afforded students the opportunity to see the realities of life with a disability beyond the classroom setting. In addition, both studies offered students the opportunity to expand their basic observational and interview skills that are useful in the area of alternative assessment. (ND)