About
Date: Tuesday, September 30, 2025
Time: 1:00–4:30 p.m.
Location: University Student Center, 800 21st Street NW, Washington, DC 20052
How do we create opportunities for students to approach each other with curiosity and engage meaningfully with their peers’ ideas? Join colleagues at Teaching Day to explore how to effectively frame conversations, facilitate more productive student participation, and prepare students to engage as active citizens in any discipline.
This year, Teaching Day capitalizes on the work done by three GW representatives sent to the Institute for Citizens & Scholars with support from the President’s Office. GW faculty members Alex Dent (CCAS, Anthropology) and David Rain (CCAS, Geography), and emerita Director of Faculty Development Patricia Dinneen will facilitate a series of interactive workshops and conversations around constructive dialogue and civic engagement. The event will also feature a panel highlighting ready-to-implement classroom activities developed by GW faculty to promote civic engagement.
By attending Teaching Day, you will:
- Experience genuine dialogue and reflect on how to recreate it in your teaching
- Practice questioning techniques that prepare students to be collaborative problem solvers
- Explore approaches to creating a classroom conversation contract
- Identify fresh ideas for assessing student participation
- Discover resources and support for implementing dialogue techniques at GW
Schedule
Participants are welcome to join for the entire event or specific segments, based on their availability.
1:00-1:15 p.m. - Welcome Remarks
Welcome remarks from President Granberg and Dean Geneva Henry
1:15–3:15 p.m. - Workshop
Constructive Classroom Dialogue: Tactics for Collaborative Problem Solving and Civic Engagement
1:15–2:00 p.m.
Part I: Sitting with Difference & Listening Progression
Learn about the value of listening and sitting with difference, and reflect on the distinction between hearing and listening.
2:15–3:15 p.m.
Part II: Designing for Dialogue, Questioning Progression, & Community Agreements
Explore classroom practices that support dialogue and compose initial ideas of how you might bring these ideas into your course.
Participants are encouraged to attend both parts of the workshop if possible, but we will accommodate those who can only join for one part.
3:30–4:15 p.m. - Panel
Innovative Classroom Activities that Foster Civic Learning
Through a collaboration between Libraries and Academic Innovation and the Nashman Center for Civic Engagement and Public Service, GW faculty across academic disciplines developed ready-to-implement classroom activities that prepare students to engage as active citizens. Come hear from your colleagues about the resources they created, and think about how you might be able to adapt them to your teaching context.
4:15-4:30 p.m. - Closing Remarks
Closing remarks from Provost Lach and Dean Geneva Henry
About the Speakers
Patricia Dinneen, EdD
Patty Dinneen recently retired as director of Faculty Development to focus on constructive dialogue and collaboration. During 17 years at GW, she originated and led numerous programs that continue to support quality teaching, including the Course Design Institute (CDI), Teaching Network for Early Career Faculty, and Flex Teaching Camps. Patty has studied in-person and online discussion, the impact of alumni feedback on course design, and improvement science for learning. She is a Professorial Lecturer at GSEHD.
Alex Dent, PhD
Alex Dent is a linguistic anthropologist who has been at GW since 2005. He does research on mediation, language, music, intellectual property, and authoritarianism in the US and Brazil. His current project explores teen cell phone use in Washington DC schools. He teaches various courses in linguistic anthropology and Latin America. Also a musician, Alex plays guitar and sings for DC punk band Cash on the Nail. He enjoys fruit pies and concision.
David Rain, PhD
David R. Rain is Associate Professor of Geography and International Affairs at the George Washington University. On the GW faculty full time since 2004, he studies the health and environmental consequences of urbanization worldwide, and he teaches Cities in the Developing World, Geography of Africa, Society & Environment, and the capstone course for Geography majors. He’s been Chair of the Department of Geography and Environment since 2021. He’s also a Faculty Senator representing Columbian College, and he co-chairs the Faculty Senate Standing Committee on University and Urban Affairs.
About the Institute for Citizens & Scholars
GW President Ellen Granberg’s office provided funding for Patty Dinneen, Alex Dent, and David Rain to participate in the Institute for Citizens & Scholars. Teaching Day’s sessions are adapted from Institute for Citizens & Scholars materials. The Institute for Citizens & Scholars (formerly the Woodrow Wilson Foundation) strives to support young people ages 14–24 developing into effective, lifelong citizens and collaborates with leaders in higher education and other fields to “transform colleges, workplaces, and communities into hubs for civic development.” Along with support for civil discourse and engaging in difficult conversations, Citizens & Scholars initiatives also focus on combatting mis- and disinformation and collaborating across differences.
