The questions of what and how to teach are traditional in education. Since knowledge in modern pedagogical science is concentrated around approaches, familiarity with them should form a meaningful basis for the training of future teachers. Pedagogy in its essence is the science and art of managing the processes of development and formation of an individual’s personality. This prompts us to pay attention primarily to instrumental approaches: personal, situational, activity-based and environmental. Their strength lies in the means to which they “owe” their name. However, while familiarizing themselves with these approaches, students face a number of diffi culties. They are caused by the following facts: the place and significance of each approach in the system of pedagogical knowledge is uncertain; the methodology and theory of approaches are detached from technology and techniques; predisposition and willingness of students to study the content of the approaches in a certain order are neglected; departments have a limited capacity for carrying out training in accordance with the approaches themselves. These reasons make it diffi cult to understand the role of each approach in personal development training. They prevent students from mastering the theory and instrumental base of the approaches. The latter prevents them from starting personal development training. The ideas formulated in this article are the author’s answer to these problems. In addition, the historical precedent given in the article, which later developed and took shape in the doctrine of the environmental approach, is intended to help comprehend the situation with the organization of personal development training in pedagogical universities.