16th Annual Faculty Center Conference--In Person

Strengthening Civic Discourse in the Classroom
Friday, February 26, 2026, 9:30am-3:00pm

This event will be held in person in the Campus Center Ballroom.

RSVP by February 19th.

Join us for two engaging faculty development sessions designed to strengthen classroom dialogue and critical thinking. The Quiet Classroom explores practical, evidence-based strategies for encouraging broad participation, helping faculty to understand common obstacles to student engagement and to apply techniques that create a more inclusive learning environment. Teaching in an Age of Contested Facts equips faculty with tools for navigating misinformation and controversial claims in the classroom, introducing the FACT framework for evaluating accuracy of Large-Language Models (LLMs) and strategies for fostering productive discussions that emphasize evidence, inquiry, and respectful engagement. An email with an RSVP link will be sent to faculty this week; faculty are asked to kindly RSVP by Feb. 19.  

The conference this year will run both presentations twice. Both sessions will run in the morning and afternoon to allow faculty to attend both sessions.

Jump to Agenda

 

Workshop: The Quiet Classroom

Workshop: The Quiet Classroom

The Quiet Classroom equips faculty with practical, evidence-based strategies to draw out diverse perspectives, encourage thoughtful contributions, and create environments where students feel prepared to speak.

Participants will:

  • Identify common barriers to student participation.
  • Apply structured techniques to increase inclusive engagement.
  • Foster psychological safety while reinforcing inquiry.
  • Use dialogue-based strategies to deepen classroom discussion.
  • Respond constructively to silence or uneven participation.

The Constructive Dialogue Institute (CDI) is a non-partisan non-profit that equips individuals and institutions with the skills to communicate across differences and build cultures of constructive dialogue. 

CDI was founded in 2017 by Jonathan Haidt and Caroline Mehl in response to the rising division and distrust threatening to tear America apart.

As our political parties increasingly align with core aspects of our identities, Americans now see ourselves as belonging to distinct tribes, locked in a zero-sum battle for the fate of our nation's future.

Americans are living in alternative realities, where there is no longer agreement on basic facts. These trends pose an enormous threat to our institutions and democracy.

CDI exists to address this challenge.

 

 

Workshop: Teaching in an Age of Contested Facts

 

Workshop: Teaching in an Age of Contested Facts

Teaching in an Age of Contested facts equips faculty with research-grounded strategies for moments when misinformation, partial information, or contested claims surface in the classroom. At its core is the FACT approach: a four-step framework for framing unexpected claims, assessing the nature of the conflict, centering inquiry, and transitioning the conversation from "Who's right?" to "How do we know?"

Participants will:

  • Distinguish between disagreement rooted in values and disagreement rooted in contested information.
  • Apply structured strategies for responding to misinformation in real time.
  • Reinforce inquiry and free expression while maintaining academic rigor.
  • Facilitate discussions about contested topics with out escalating polarization.
  • Model intellectual humility and evidence-based reasoning.

Agenda

 

For more information please contact:

Jennifer Jaiswal
Director of the Faculty Center
(934)420-5775
Jennifer Jaiswal

Last Modified 11/12/26