The paper is dealing with affect scaffolding (ASC)  in (pre)vocational education. Prevocational education (VMBO) is the first stage in a continuing pathway to  upper secondary  vocational  education (MBO). In prevocational schools the last two years are focused on learning paths in four different domains of vocational study; technology, care and welfare, economics and agriculture.  ASC is important for (pre)vocational schools. The significance of emotions in learning is emphasized more and more (Boekaerts, 1993; Pekrun, Goetz, Frenzel, Barchfeld & Raymond, 2000; Schutz & Lanehart, 2002). Much is already known about the role of emotions in learning. Emotions are intertwined in teachers’ instructional responses and students’ beliefs and actions, constituting an integral part of the interpersonal processes that create classroom contexts. Prevocational schools in the Netherlands deal with a high percentage of early school leavers that is relatively high compared to other western countries (OECD, 2007).  .. Many schools have been implementing educational innovations in order to meet the needs of their students. Although many studies have focused on (meta) cognitive scaffolding, little attention has been paid to the phenomenon of affect scaffolding . ASC is a promising approach as a tool for  teachers , who have to deal effectively  with situations in the learning process which are emotionally challenging for students and difficult for them to handle without any help. The metaphor scaffolding has been used to indicate the role of a teacher (or some other more knowledgeable other) when offering temporary support to a student, the way a scaffold helps to construct or modify a building (Wood, Bruner & Ross, 1976). Cazden (1979) explicitly relates the scaffolding metaphor to Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD).  In an extensive review study contingency, fading and transfer are identified as main characteristics of scaffolding (van de Pol et al, 2010). Offering contingent support is also crucial in the ASC domain. This research has a quasi-experimental design, with pre-measurements and post-measurements in the experimental group. We have focussed on the workability and applicability of ASC as a tool for teachers in prevocational education. Secondary, we investigate whether the teachers’ newly learnt approach has lead to perceptible changes in their performance and their reflections on this performance. In a previous multiple - case study (2012 in prep), we explored to what extent teachers in professional education use ASC in vocational subjects and which scaffolding techniques they use. The objective of this study is to develop a professional development program. We have therefore formulated the following research questions; 1. Is it possible to transfer a professional development program for affect scaffolding to teachers in prevocational education? 2. Does working with a professional development program lead to
perceptible change in vocational teachers’ performance?

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