Improving teacher training is possible

If we want quality education, we must truly elevate the prestige of the teaching profession. This means guaranteeing rigorous initial teacher training. There are no successful education systems without excellent teachers, nor excellent teachers without a sufficiently demanding degree program to attract bright and dedicated students. The countries that lead in educational outcomes understand this clearly: only the best academic records are admitted to teacher training programs, faculty are selected using clear criteria, and students receive intensive training and high-quality mentoring. Their faculties of education have a strong commitment to academic rigor and enjoy recognized prestige.

In Europe, Finland, Estonia, Ireland, Portugal, and the Netherlands have established robust selection and training models: rigorous entry requirements, demanding university programs, supervised practicums, and a professional culture where formative assessment—peer-to-peer or with mentors—is commonplace. These are the hallmarks of excellence: reflection on practice, inquiry-based teaching, and collaboration among teachers placed at the heart of the profession, fostering environments of trust for learning and professional growth.

In Catalonia, although we claim to value our teachers, the public image of teacher training remains deplorable. Turning this vicious cycle into a virtuous one would require raising the ambition of faculties of education, strengthening their academic prestige, and placing teacher training at the heart of any national project that aims to guarantee educational success.

The proposals from the Conference of Deans of Faculties of Education (CoDE) have reopened the debate on initial teacher training. White paper The proposal suggests extending teacher training to five years with a specialized master's degree and introducing a specific entrance exam for the degree. Improving the selection process is a step in the right direction and aligns with what the MIF Program proposed years ago for Catalonia, in line with high-performance systems that assess reading comprehension, reasoning, and professional skills before students begin their studies.

The MIF (Master's in Teacher Training) is a program to improve teacher training, launched in 2013 by the Inter-University Council of Catalonia and the Department of Education, with the participation of all public and private universities. As early as 2016, it proposed strategic actions to strengthen teacher training, most notably a common structure for all teachers—from early childhood to secondary school—based on three-year undergraduate degrees and a two-year master's degree. The final year was to be a selective residency in a school, with a professional immersion training plan, developed in close collaboration between universities and the Department. This approach should be revisited and its relevance reassessed.

So, should the debate focus on adding years to the teaching profession? Or on incorporating content such as inclusion, emotional education, or digitalization? Perhaps the key lies in a new teaching culture: reflective teachers, capable of examining their own practice, making informed decisions in complex contexts, and generating new knowledge. Teachers must be professionals capable of working in educationally challenging environments and continuing their professional development throughout their lives. As Jaume Cela and Joan Domènech remind us in their latest book, teachers learn primarily from experience, observation, and reflection on practice, and not so much from records, statistics, or scientific evidence. It's not about applying manuals, but about supporting future teachers so they can solve problems and adapt to changing realities.

Several European and non-European countries operate this way. In Great Britain, one can become a teacher with a university degree in any discipline (any discipline: history, biology, engineering, economics, etc.) followed by a postgraduate teaching qualification (PGCE or Master's degree), structured practical training, and a two-year mentored residency. This means six years of training: three years for the undergraduate degree, one for the Master's, and two years of residency (with pay). This model emphasizes pre-selection, pedagogical quality, and innovation, rather than focusing solely on the initial degree. Initiatives like Teach First demonstrate that if universities don't take action, other organizations and networks of schools are already training teachers and creating alternative pathways that can attract the best candidates.

In Catalonia, collaboration between universities and schools should be strengthened: university professors with real-world teaching experience, practicing teachers involved in teacher training, residency placements in leading schools, and mixed teams developing innovation and research projects. As the MIF Program pointed out, it is necessary to overcome the artificial separation between primary and secondary education: the complexity of teaching is high at all levels, and a coherent undergraduate + master's + residency model is needed to enable mobility and continuous professional development.

But we are far from achieving this: despite the abundance of texts and studies that guide the direction of initial teacher training, faculties remain too detached from the realities of schools. We will only move forward if universities, administrations, and schools work collaboratively and create a third space for training and innovation that acts as a true laboratory for educational practice and research.