Transformation of pedagogical education and the educational policy of the European Union (EU) encourage innovative pedagogical processes aimed at the training of teachers of the new nature and competences. As a result, the main activity of universities today is the satisfaction of the individual's need for knowledge, which allows them to be a competitive leader and successfully adapt to the modern world. Leadership in education requires general cultural and professional training, an orientation towards selfdevelopment and self-improvement. In the current context of rapid obsolescence of knowledge, occupational mobility of leading teachers is determined by personal qualities. An integral personal quality of a leader in education, which stimulates the need for self-improvement, is their professional thinking. Presently, the concept of "teachers thinking" as a factor of leadership in education is being further developed. We describe its seven main functions that are of special relevance. Our study examined ten problems, the solution of which in university training facilitates to the teachers' formation of the professional thinking. Chemistry teacher as an agent of leadership in education. At the same time, students are introduced to the problem statement as well as analysis of contradictions, and hypotheses, their validation and corroboration in explaining natural-science phenomena. This study presents the multifunctional and stage-by-stage process outlined above. We develop and present a classification of chemical and pedagogical problematic situations. Moreover, we outline the technique of teaching students of pedagogical faculties the general methods of reasoning during the analysis of the typical, most frequently encountered chemical, as well as pedagogical problematic situations.