The Quiet Classroom is a 2-hour workshop that equips faculty with practical, evidence-based strategies to increase student engagement and strengthen classroom dialogue. Participants learn structured techniques to draw out diverse perspectives, foster inquiry, and create environments where students feel prepared to contribute thoughtfully and participate across differences.
Grounded in CDI’s nonpartisan, research-informed framework, the workshop helps instructors build inquiry-driven classrooms that support free expression while maintaining academic rigor.
Applied skill-building format
Evidence-based dialogue framework
Focus on inquiry and free expression
Workshop Format
The Quiet Classroom is offered as an interactive professional development workshop for faculty.
- Length: 2 hours
- Format: Live, in person, or virtual options
- Delivery: Delivered in person as part of a half-day workshop or virtually as a 2 hour workshop
The workshop combines research insights, structured dialogue practice, and applied facilitation techniques, and can be integrated into a Center for Teaching & Learning programming.
You Should Attend This Workshop if You Are
- Faculty seeking to increase classroom participation
- A Center for Teaching & Learning
- A department chair
- A graduate instructor and teaching fellow
Concepts Covered
Create classroom environments where students feel prepared to contribute, ask questions, and engage across differences with curiosity and respect.
Common Use Cases
- Addressing low classroom participation
- Integrating dialogue into faculty development programming
- Supporting faculty navigating uneven discussion dynamics
- Strengthening student engagement across disciplines
By the end of this workshop, 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 skills were so practical and because the case scenarios we discuss we so thoughtfully chosen, it didn’t feel like a stretch to incorporate this into my work.
I honestly thought it was one of the best trainings I’ve been through.
I very much enjoyed this training and found it incredibly valuable to my work.
The skills were so practical and because the case scenarios we discuss we so thoughtfully chosen, it didn’t feel like a stretch to incorporate this into my work.
I honestly thought it was one of the best trainings I’ve been through.
I very much enjoyed this training and found it incredibly valuable to my work.
