Universities were once celebrated as places where ideas could be challenged, debated, and refined. Classrooms were meant to be arenas for civil discourse—spaces where disagreement was not only tolerated but valued.

Yet that ideal is under strain. Divisions between social and political groups have deepened, and polarization—especially in the U.S.—has reached historic levels. Many instructors now hesitate to invite disagreement for fear that conversations will spiral into conflict. But learning depends on dialogue. And dialogue depends on difference.

My new book, The Collective Edge: Unlocking the Secret Power of Groups, explores the psychological and social forces that shape how we live and work together—and why it’s so hard to cooperate or listen across divides. Drawing on The Collective Edge, here are four strategies to help students practice the art of disagreeing well.

A class in which everyone agrees all the time isn’t a productive learning environment. Groups that avoid conflict may appear harmonious, but they learn little. As Stanford professor Kathleen Eisenhardt and her colleagues once wrote, “The absence of conflict is not........

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