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Today, we are joined by Professor Karen Galli, who teaches in the English program at Hudson County Community College. Right away, we explore the differences between teaching at a community college, a state university, and a private university. She notes that community college students often have a deeper desire to change their family's trajectory through education, whereas private university students can sometimes be more focused on negotiating requirements rather than a genuine thirst for learning.
Karen explains how she works to help community college students, many of whom are first-generation, develop critical thinking and writing skills. She describes strategies like relating assignments to students' interests and professional goals and building trust to encourage them to take risks in their thinking and writing.
The group discusses the perception that the humanities lack rigor compared to STEM fields, and how Karen navigates this bias with her STEM-focused colleagues. She emphasizes the need to demonstrate the structure and academic integrity within humanities disciplines.
Karen shares how she has approached the use of AI tools by students in her writing courses. She focuses on building trust, scaffolding the writing process, and making the value of original thinking and writing transparent, rather than just penalizing AI-generated work.
If you are a professor of English or another Humanities field, please reach out to us so we can have you on the podcast series!
You can find out more about Karen's work here: https://www.hccc.edu/abouthccc/directory/profile/galli-karen.html
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