Teaching Through Dialogue: Perspectives on Curiosity, Connection, and Critical Thinking

Dialogue has become a point of focus across higher education, particularly as institutions consider how to support student learning in contexts marked by disagreement, difference, and uncertainty.

This conversation brings together CDI Educators Sara Mehltretter (Wabash College), Janelle Rae (Spalding University), and Michael J. Lee (College of Charleston) to reflect on how dialogic approaches can contribute to learning environments that support curiosity, connection, and critical thinking. Drawing on their work with faculty, students, and institutions, the panel explores how dialogue can be integrated into teaching and learning in ways that are aligned with existing academic goals and constraints.

Moderated by Jake Fay, Director of Education at the Constructive Dialogue Institute, the discussion situates these perspectives within broader questions about dialogue’s role in higher education—particularly how institutions think about trust, engagement, and the conditions that support meaningful learning.

What the Conversation Explores

• How dialogic approaches foster curiosity, connection, and critical thinking in higher-education classrooms
• How faculty and institutions can integrate dialogue alongside disciplinary aims and curricular constraints
• How dialogue can build trust while respecting students’ different ways and degrees of participating in class
• How faculty can engage disagreement and contested ideas in ways that advance learning
• How faculty can account for the uneven or asymmetrical demands dialogue may place on students