Currently, it appears to be assumed that in order to be a teacher at any stage of education, it is not enough to be fully familiar with the contents of the academic materials; it is also necessary to have specific professional knowledge that makes it possible to carry out the professional functions as a whole, that is, to diagnose, plan, carry out teaching, guide students and families, assess, and so on.

In that regard, there are many studies which have established what teachers’ professional knowledge is (Darling-Hammond & Baratz-Snowden, 2005; Grossman, 1990; Morine-Dershimer & Todd, 2003; Shulman, 1987). Along general lines, teaching staff need professional knowledge consisting of the dimensions of the discipline (proper knowledge of a subject) and the pedagogical (to know how to motivate, communicate, transmit/generate knowledge, facilitate learning, and so on). This particular amalgam of subject and pedagogy was defined by Shulman (1987) as Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK). This knowledge is the exclusive sphere of teachers and their own particular form of professional understanding.

Although pedagogical knowledge constitutes an essential element in the construction of PCK, in some contexts (such as Argentina and Spain), it is given little value by secondary school teaching staff during training. The principal causes why such value is attached appear to come from the initial teacher training model (of consecutive type) and the orientation of the studies completed by teachers. In a study made by Terigi (2011, p. 21) it is stated that:

"The low value given appears to refer to the fact it concerns a knowledge order that is very different to that of the discipline and which is seen as ‘trivial’ in comparison, given that the greater demands of the initial training appear to be devoted to discipline learning."

Despite the evaluation made by teachers during training, it appears to be a form of knowledge whose importance is discovered during the course of the professional activity, at which time the lack of such knowledge becomes clear. Teachers, during their first years of teaching, tend to express dissatisfaction with the initial teacher training as a source of professional knowledge. Newer teachers consider experience in the profession to be the main source of professional knowledge, arguing that when they started in the profession, they were ill-prepared to face the profession’s principal problems (Bolívar, 2006; Bolívar & Bolívar Ruano, 2012; Marcelo, 2009; Tardif, 2004).

In this research we study the relevance of pedagogical knowledge in the act of teaching, and the initial training as a source for the acquisition thereof. Thus, the main purpose of this study is to contribute to the improvement of the initial pedagogical training of secondary school teaching staff in the context of Spain.

The objectives of this research:

• To discover if, and to what extent, there are similarities in the different stages of professional development as regards the manner in which secondary school teachers attach value to pedagogical knowledge when teaching.
• To discover the possible evolution experienced by long-serving secondary school teachers in respect of recognising the importance of adequate pedagogical knowledge for the performance of their current teaching, describing the process and influential elements.
• To establish the teaching competences valued by teachers.
• To analyse the initial pedagogical training programmes, extracting characteristics and fundamental elements.
• To establish the elements deemed essential (by different agents) in initial pedagogical training programmes in order to achieve appropriate preparation of teachers.
• To determine whether the competences most valued by secondary school teaching staff were taken into consideration in the current programmes.
• To put forward a proposal, supported by contributions from different agents, which may guide initial pedagogical training.

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