In programs of initial and continuing teacher education, there are different contexts for the development of professional practice. These contexts may be, for example, intellectually, skills or values based. Professional practice requirements will differ according to the communities and cultures which each system serves. Requirements will be imposed according to the needs of certification regimes, and these will have to be addressed. However, there may also be common elements of professional practice, which can be portable from one teaching situation to another, and from one education system to another. This presentation will address what these common elements of professional practice might be: how we might define and identify them; how they might be developed and how they could be assessed. The overall context for the presentation will be the location of practice within the broader spectrum of teacher professionalism and professional qualities. Case studies of the location of practice within the systems of individual countries will be drawn on in order to illustrate our argument.