The teachers' continuing education promoted as essential, in different social sectors by advances in technical and scientific has been found in international documents, in speeches to the improvement of student learning. Since it is anchored in the indexes obtained in large-scale assessments, it makes the teachers responsible for the results or it assumes an instrumental character without reflection on the difficulties of school and it is disconnected from context of initial formation. Analyzing teachers' continuing education policies and teacher's professionalization in Brazil and Switzerland highlights convergence on the understanding this kind of formation, regarding the guidelines focused on curricular changes, based on large-scale assessments and teacher policies guidelines.