In the social, political, and social humanities lexicon of today's Russia there is probably no word that is in wider and more common use than modernization. What this refers to is the profound and systematic transformation of all the main structures and sub-systems of the social organism, including "education"--one of the most important, in which the teacher is called on to be one of the primary figures. "The modernization of pedagogical education, in which the training of schoolteachers takes place, is the main task of the state's educational policy." In this article, the authors focus on analyzing the structure of the professional training of teachers, the current state of pedagogical education (with the example of one region), and the shaping of students' genuine motivation to learn and be guided to enter pedagogical activity. In their opinion, the modernization of pedagogical education will require the kind of comprehensive restructuring that, first and foremost, will make it possible to train pedagogical cadres of the new formation, cadres who have a stake in and are capable of working under the conditions of the emergence of the information society. The modernization must also enable students to develop skills of self-determination, self-education, and the motivation to continue their studies in higher pedagogical educational institutions, to engage in work activity in institutions of pedagogical profile. In short, the modernization should not lead to the curtailing of pedagogical education but instead, rather, to the optimization and perfection of its structure, organization, and content. (Contains 2 tables and 1 note.) [This article was translated by Kim Braithwaite.]