58: “I Expect to Keep Changing” - Interview with Professor Rachel Austin

Today Ruth and Claire meet with Professor Rachel Austin, the Diana T. and P. Roy Vagelos Professor of Chemistry and chair of the chemistry department at Barnard College in NYC. They talk about helping students meet high expectations in the classroom, including how a positive student experience can lead to higher performance. They also talk about Rachel’s thoughts on teaching and learning as a continual process rather than an endpoint to be reached, including applying lessons from the pandemic to being open to continual change.

Claire was a student in Rachel’s undergraduate chemistry classes at Bates College in the late 2000s, and it was Rachel’s class that inspired Claire to major in chemistry. Now Claire emulates Rachel’s teaching style in her own classrooms, and is thrilled to talk with Rachel directly about her teaching philosophy in this episode.
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