After independence (1947), India strived toward Universalization of Elementary Education (UEE). Although elementary teachers in-charge of school education have increased in number, issues of the quality of teacher education have not attracted steadfast attention for a long time, certainly until the late 1980s. The recent shift from quantitative expansion to qualitative improvement in the field of education, made people aware of how vital was the quality of teacher education. In this paper, a District Institute of Education and Training (DIET), in the middle of the sub-continent, is studied as a teacher education institution which imparts pre-service, elementary, teacher education. It takes into account both problems of quality and local circumstances, how teacher educators practically demonstrate their model lessons, and how student teachers create their lesson plans before they go to practice teaching at elementary schools in the district.