there are now more practice periods for teacher students in schools but this is not the rule experience from other countries shows that teachers perceive their practical experience in schools to be an important component of their initial education wilson et al in chile as in many other countries teaching practice is often not well connected to the theoretical content in teacher training courses with opportunities for students to integrate what they learn in the classroom with the rest of the curriculum the government should work towards making classroom practice an integral part of initial teacher education in all programmes