Whereas various studies have examined the effects of in-service training, relatively little is known about effective approaches for improving interaction skills among pre-service teachers for early childhood education and care. In this study, the evidencebased in-service Caregiver Interaction Profile training course was implemented in Dutch pre-service teacher training. The pre-service teachers on the program with relatively low scores at the pretest showed a significant growth in relation to four interaction skills: sensitive responsiveness, respect for autonomy, structuring and limit setting, and verbal communication. We discuss these results in the context of effective professional development in early childhood education and care.

Research Findings: This small-scale study features the 1st comparative exploration of the pedagogical quality of parent-led child care and regular child care in The Netherlands. The quality of the interaction skills and the affective relationships between adults and children was evaluated and compared with those of regular child care centers. On average parents in parent-led child care had interactions with adequate to good sensitive responsiveness, respect for autonomy, structuring and limit setting, and verbal communication. Developmental stimulation and fostering positive peer interactions proved to be weaker areas. Parents' perceptions of the affective relationship with children in the group were characterized by a high level of closeness and a low level of dependency and conflict. Parents experienced a greater degree of closeness but also more conflict and in particular greater dependency with their own children than with the other children. A comparison between parent-led centers and regular urban child care centers revealed some small but significant differences in pedagogical quality. Practice or Policy: Parents can play a more active role in both the design and implementation of child care. It seems interesting to pilot new child care formats in which parents and professional staff collaborate more closely. The child care system in many countries is centered on a mainstream model of professional child care suppliers with parents as consumers. However, in some countries, alternative forms of child care have emerged in the margins of this dominant model. For example, parental preschool cooperatives were introduced in Canada (Prentice, 2006) and the United States (Coontz & Esper, 2003) as early as 1915, serving as playgroups or socialization groups for children similar to church groups (Lewsader & Elicker, 2013; Sosinsky, Lord, & Zigler, 2007) or mixed-age homeschooling groups (Guterman & Neuman, 2018; Kunzman & Gaither, 2013). These cooperatives went on to inspire parents in European countries (Gofen & Blomqvist, 2014). In various European countries, forms of cooperative care date back more than 40 years, with parents actively participating in the management of, the coordination of, and/or interaction with the children in the group (see Pestoff, 2006; Vamstad, 2012), like the crèches parentales in France, the oudercrèches in Belgium, the Eltern-Kita in Germany, and some forsköle in Sweden. In The Netherlands, parent-led child care (PLC) centers (ouderparticipatiecrèches), in which parents play an autonomous role, have offered an alternative to standard child care for 40 years. Offering child care services for younger children (0-4 years) in a center-based setting is a shared characteristic of Dutch PLC and regular child care, but a striking CONTACT Ruben G.

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