ABSTRACT
The lack of systematic knowledge about the effectiveness of old and new teacher education approaches in Mexico complicates policy making and threatens to weaken the quality of education teachers receive. Evaluative studies that comparatively assess the merits of approaches to educate teachers are non-existing. Historically, Mexico has been successful in providing educational services for its population. At the preschool level the coverage is 70 percent, and for primary and secondary education is 98 and 80 percent respectively. Mexico was the first among developing countries to successfully implement progressive educational policies such as the provision of free textbooks to the population attending basic education in the 1950s. In the early 1920s along with the creation of the Secretariat for Public Education after the Mexican Revolution, emerges in 1925 the National School for Teachers in both rural and urban areas. These schools have served as a model for the training of pre-service primary school teachers in Mexico.
