Practicum in Secondary School Teacher Education

Reform of Secondary Education Teacher Training in Spain has been articulated from the new regulation of master's degrees. Considering teaching a regulated profession, the ministerial regulations define some compulsory basic requirements and let each university to design their specific program. With the purpose of knowing and assessing the Practicum, a research which involved 85% of public universities and 88% of private higher education institutions providing the Master Program in Teaching in Secondary Education has been conducted. The overall results reveal a good conceptual harmony, some organizational diversity and a significant operational weakness in the documentation concerning the Practicum. Drawing on the findings of the study and the existing literature on the Practicum as a privileged space for learning how to teach, several reflections to improve teacher training programs are suggested.