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Core Hosting Lecture, Workshop Focused on 'Wicked' Problems in the Core Classroom

02/10/2025

The University Core will host Paul Hanstedt, Ph.D., Vice Chancellor of the University of Minnesota-Rochester and a national expert in undergraduate teaching and learning, for two events related to the Core’s Collaborative Inquiry requirement.

A lecture is scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 20, and a workshop will take place Friday, Feb. 21.

All SLU undergraduates complete one Collaborative Inquiry course in their Junior or Senior year, in which they are guided in working with other students from a variety of majors and backgrounds to engage with complex questions from multiple perspectives. This course is where students demonstrate achievement of the Core’s second Student Learning Outcome (SLO 2): All SLU undergraduates will be able to integrate knowledge from multiple disciplines to address complex questions.  

Lecture

At 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 20, in Pius Library room 010, Hanstedt will deliver a lecture entitled “Wicked Problems in the Classroom: Using Complexity to Leverage Deeper Learning.”

This presentation will explore how faculty members can we best draw upon and challenge the boundaries of our students’ nascent expertise  — gained from their majors, minors, and other coursework — to show them the transformative value of integrative learning and multidisciplinary synthetic knowledge building.

No RSVP is required.

Workshop

Hanstedt will lead a lunch workshop/discussion from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 21, in Verhaegen 219, with SLU faculty members who either teach or are interested in developing Collaborative Inquiry courses.

Faculty members will be invited to share and discuss their own strategies for designing assignments, units, and whole courses around “wicked problems,” in which we richly engage undergraduates in thinking about and collaborating on the questions and problems that face all of us today.

Space is limited for the workshop. Anyone interested in attending should email core@slu.edu by Monday, Feb.17, to register.