Academic inquiry and exploring new opinions are cornerstones of higher education, but some students say they’re not encouraged to engage in new ideas on campus. According to 2025 data from Inside Higher Ed and Generation Lab, approximately one in eight Student Voice respondents (13 percent) said they felt “not very” or “not at all” supported in their efforts to explore different perspectives at their college; 7 percent said they were unsure.
More colleges and universities are seeking to establish ways to advance civil discourse and allow students to disagree respectfully, but creating productive classroom dialogue remains a challenge for many professors.
A November webinar hosted by the Association of College and University Educators (ACUE) offered practical insights for instructors looking to build a supportive and thoughtful environment for exchanging ideas.
What’s the need: Constructive dialogue activities help students thrive in and outside the classroom.
“We need to have our students, whether they’re 40 and going back to school or just starting out in higher ed, we need to have adults in this world who are able to have meaningful conversations with others, to solve problems and to understand the viewpoints of others,” said Laurie Pendleton, executive director of faculty success at ACUE, during the webinar.
Such skills can also help students in their careers. “There are critiques of Gen Z [that] they don’t know how to work with each other in the workspace,” Zack Ritter, associate director of strategic initiatives at UCLA’s Center for Community Engagement, said during the webinar. “We’re providing a skill of, how do you listen to someone deeply at the workplace? How do you collaborate and find consensus among a bunch of different people?”
Defining terms: Deliberative dialogue, also called civil discourse or constructive conversation, is distinct from a casual discussion or engaging in debate, Pendleton said.
“When we think about debate, we’re really thinking more about winners and losers,” Pendleton said. “I’m stating my opinion or my facts. You’re stating your opinions and your facts, and we’re looking at who has the stronger case.”
Deliberative dialogue, however, is comparing different views, looking for mutual appreciation and potentially leading to collective action, Pendleton said.
“We’re looking for more shared understanding, things like, ‘I didn’t think about it from that perspective,’ or, ‘That’s interesting evidence; where did it come from?’” she explained.
Setting the stage: One of the common missteps faculty can make when establishing deliberative dialogue is neglecting to lay the groundwork, Ritter said. “You can’t just jump into the hot topic, because people are going to come with different baggage, different hates, different misunderstandings,” he said.
Instead, faculty should facilitate activities that allow students to share more about themselves and their cultures and to learn about their peers. Even better is when the class can build trust by doing some type of action project to solidify their connections, Ritter said, such as volunteering in the community.
Creating a classroom space that is responsive to discussion can also be key, said Adam A. Smith, founder and senior consultant at Smith Education Associates. Smith arranges his classroom to have “pods” of students grouped at desks or tables to allow them to connect in a more intimate way.
Navigating tensions: The goal of a deliberate discussion is not to make everyone comfortable, said Rosina Bolen, director of solidarity, engagement and success initiatives at Mount Saint Mary’s University.
“If everyone’s comfortable, you’re probably not having the kind of conversation that stretches people’s comfort zones,” Bolen said.
Faculty members should be prepared to make mistakes and for students possibly to get offended, and be equipped to handle “hot” or “cold” moments.
A hot moment is when tensions are high and conflict may erupt in the classroom. A cold moment, on the other hand, is when students don’t feel comfortable speaking out and a silent chill descends on the room.
Establishing community guidelines, ground rules or space agreements can be one way to mitigate or navigate uncomfortable situations by providing a working framework of what is or is not appropriate in the dialogue, Bolen said. Instructors should not assume students know the rules of engagement; it is their responsibility to outline the norms of the setting, Smith said.
It can be helpful to name what is happening in the outside world, including any prominent political or social tensions, and how they might inform individuals’ contributions to the conversation, Ritter said. “Naming the inequalities in society that are cutting across a bunch of different identities is also a way to build solidarity in the classroom.”
Professors should also conduct a self-evaluation of what may trigger their own emotional responses and prepare for how they will navigate such feelings so as to not disrupt the larger classroom goal. Similarly, faculty can give students an opportunity to share any of their own behaviors that might lead to misinterpretation.
“I’ve found it successful where students front-load some of their mannerisms and they say, ‘Hey everybody, sometimes I talk really loud, and it doesn’t mean that I’m mad at you, it’s just when I get excited about something, I just talk really loud and I use my hands,’” Ritter explained. “Having folks be vulnerable about their little mannerisms might result in a lot of pain reduction in the future.”
Continuing the conversation: After the formal discussion, faculty should create an opportunity for the class to reflect, Bolen said. How did the conversation go? How did people react? What did students learn?
“That debrief can go a long way towards ameliorating any negative impact on the rest of the course,” Bolen said. “And if something comes up that impacts individual students, it’s a great idea to go and check in with them afterwards and see how they’re doing.”
Deliberative dialogues should not be one-off events that occur in a vacuum, Pendleton said, but can be woven into the curriculum and connected to disciplinary content.