A study was conducted to determine which of the following modes of professional practice is the dominant mode used by Ohio family and consumer science (FCS) teachers when implementing a refined critical science based curriculum: technical-rational; reflective-ethical; and process-oriented. The target population consisted of 1,013 secondary teachers who were teaching one or more of Ohio's six core work and family life courses. The sample included 45 teachers who had participated in the Ohio secondary teacher-leader institutes and a random sample chosen from Ohio's 968 remaining FCS secondary school teachers. Usable questionnaires were returned by 267 (60%) of the 495 teachers who received questionnaires. According to the researchers, great emphasis has been placed on encouraging teachers to integrate the four process modules into the beginning of each semester course, so it was no surprise that the process-oriented mode proved to be the dominant mode used by 204 (68.7%) of the teachers. More surprising to the researchers was that only 11.1% of the teachers used the reflective-ethical mode of practice. Of those surveyed, 64% indicated that they are emphasizing critical thinking tools in their classrooms "a good deal" or "most of the time" and 73.1% reported also probing their students' ethical thinking. It was concluded that efforts to move Ohio FCS teachers to the reflective-ethical model of professional practice must continue and that professional development experiences should incorporate what is known about professional development, be readily accessible to teachers, and encouraged by local school administrations. (MN)