The aim of this study was to investigate teaching conceptions, approaches and techniques at the Iranian higher education and consists of two parts. In the first and analytical part some of the developments which have affected the mission of the university in ‘postmodern” era are reviewed. Then through an analysis of the concept of teaching, some of the salient approaches to teaching are introduced. In the second part, the findings of a field investigation in which the teaching activities of 51 faculty members were directly observed are reported and discussed. The categorization of the data gathered through observation yielded two sets of teaching specifications: The first set comprises specealized, intellectual, and academic aspects of teaching, with the second set dealing with its interpersonal and affective features. The findings show a considerable similarity to the work of Lowman (1991) and Jackson et al (1999). The predominant teaching approach identified fits very well in teacher- centeredness/ content- orientedness teaching perspectives.