The study seeks to analyze the affective and cognitive traits of teacher trainees in higher educational institutions in Nigeria. This is with the view to develop an effective teacher education framework by using inputs from the trainees, in-service teachers and teacher educators and to incorporate their ideas into the structuring and organization of not only the educational programmes but also the admission processes into such programmes. Using inputs from classroom teachers, teacher trainees, teacher educators as well as basic education students, a compilation of the personal and professional characteristics of an effective teacher was drawn. These were then developed into a comprehensive open- and close-ended questionnaire covering trainees' perception of and attitude to teaching, their belief systems, measures of cognitive and affective characteristics as well as a test of personality trait. The main sample for the study comprised three hundred teacher trainees drawn from two universities and one college of education from south-west Nigeria. The fi ndings showed that Nigerian teacher trainees possessed varied and widely spread cognitive and affective behaviour some of which is suited for the teaching profession. However, the study could not determine if these attributes are refl ective of their personality types prior to exposure to teacher education or not.