In the article the author considers recent trends in teacher education and pedagogical mastery, issues of carrying out improvements to the teacher training system in European countries, analyzes programmes of cooperation in education that facilitate forming of teachers' professional competency, studies typical problems in teacher education in Europe and possible ways for its improving. Based on the study of European experience in teacher training the author has concluded that lecturers are extremely interested in identifying the patterns of teacher training and pedagogical mastery as a theoretical, methodological and practical problem and has justified the importance of the structural organization and modernization of teacher professional training in higher education, the development of new forms in relations between the teacher training system and higher education institutions, which are based on systematic, scientific, interdisciplinary approaches and the idea of continuity. The importance of special cooperation projects in teacher education launched in the European Union in terms of pedagogical mastery has been emphasized in the article. The author also focuses attention on new ways of solving the existing problems in developing the professional competency of students obtaining teacher education as well as the development of pedagogical mastery. There have been described main directions in the functioning of European countries' teacher training systems that can be useful in identifying development trends in teacher education in Ukraine, namely, teacher education based on worldwide recognized researches, the shift in orientation of the teacher education philosophy: from quantity to quality, clearly defined educational standards as well as criteria for their assessment, the review of procedures for accrediting teacher training institutions, the use of multimedia technologies.