Pedagogical practice takes an important place in the process of teaching students. As an integral part of the University's main professional educational program structure, it is aimed at consolidating theoretical knowledge and developing professional skills directly in the workplace. The purpose of the study is to determine the role of educational practice in the formation of professional competencies of first-year students studying in the areas of training “Pedagogical education”. The main research methods are: theoretical analysis of the literature on the research problem, pedagogical modeling of educational practice of future teachers, observation of trainees at school, studying the products of their activities in the form of reporting documentation on practice and presentation of practice results at the final conference, analysis of the results of questionnaires of students of the Mari State University, calculation of elementary statistics. Educational practice for obtaining primary professional skills, including primary skills of research activity is of an introductory nature, it is a logical continuation of the process of teaching students theoretical disciplines, including the “Pedagogy” course. It is implemented taking into account competence, system, activity and integrative approaches. The system approach involves the interrelation and unity of the purpose, tasks, structure, content of practice, planned results of training of students during the practice. The activity approach involves performing certain tasks aimed at forming the readiness of future teachers to carry out professional activities. The implementation of the competence approach is represented by a set of developed and tested individual tasks performed by students during the educational practice, which are checked using specific criteria for evaluating the results of undergraduate studies during practice. The integrative approach involves combining and implementing predictive, design, organizational, communicative, and reflexive types of pedagogical activities implemented by trainees in the course of individual tasks in order to consolidate their previously acquired theoretical knowledge and professional skills.