Using a Tuning Protocol: A Journey of Creating and Sustaining Professional Conversations Among Teacher Educators

This article reports on the challenges of creating and sustaining on-going conversations about faculty teaching practices encountered by one Department of Teacher Education. The research indicates that higher education is experimenting with many forms of collegial discourse, yet remains instructionally isolated. This three-year journey includes gathering faculty support for increased talk about teaching, overcoming time constraints to meet together and experimenting with two discourse formats to increase conversation. A non-evaluative peer observation process was found to be helpful but not sustainable. Using a modified turning protocol produced three benefits: 1) kept the group on task, 2) stimulated collective inquiry, and 3) placed the emphasis on learning