[PSYC BC2134] Educational Psychology

Prof. Sacks is a very knowledgable woman. A lot of class participation is expected but not draged out of you. It was a nice, relaxing environment, where she would bring candy, or cookies every now and then. Most of the students enjoyed the class a lot. Definitely recommend it

I found Professor Sacks' class to be thought provoking and fun. She's very traditional, and she has so much to offer. Her class is very much like a seminar and Prof. Sacks loves class participation. I found it to be a very relaxed and enjoyable class!

Not too hard a class, but lots of 3rd-grade level nonsense. The first 3/4 of the semester Sacks was off-task for at least the first half of the lecture passing out potential (volunteer) tutoring and teacher's aides jobs and snacks galore (even though she said that food was the worst reward to give to a class of students). Sacks isn't mean, perse, but she has made nasty comments to many a classmate. The individual projects could be either fun or a pain in the butt depending on what resources you had - she never informed many students that you cannot really go into NYC classrooms to conduct experiments. Classroom observations (1 elementary, 1 secondary) were fine albeit time consuming and hard to schedule and the writeups were not bad if you know exactly what she's looking for. Nevertheless, she thinks she's more influential in the NYC public school community and that we can get into classrooms with ease which was clearly not the case. Also - if you want a good grade be sure to go to an All-Women's school - she seems to love that more than anything! As far as the in-class "seminars" as she would call them - we ended up coloring, writing stuff out on newsprint paper, drawing with crayons, and talking about our "personal experiences" in 5th grade - half our life ago. It seemed more like a therapy session than a psych class. Also, the documents she hands out are rediculously outdated. She plays favorites and is feminist (she thinks that girls are oppressed by boys in the classroom and therefore they should be separated; okay, well she does teach at Barnard). But if you manage to go to class, sign the attendance sheet, dig out your feelings about that bully who pushed you in the mud at recess when you were nine, and eat some of her cookies, you'll get a good grade. Also, if you take Carol Dweck's class at the same time - you're golden.

It was like sitting through a really bad middle school class. After class everyone would walk out and swear not to come back the next day... and a lot of them didn't... so she started taking attendance. It was really disappointing seeing as she was teaching potential teachers... and her teaching was so horrific. No patience, no tact, no organization... lots of poo.

If you like being treated like a child, educational psych is the course for you. Professor Sacks runs a lecture that feels at times like an elementary school art class (Get into groups, kids! Here are some markers and oaktag!) or like a group therapy session for unresolved middle school traumas. I left each day feeling embarassed and idiotic, and most importantly, completely underwhelmed by Prof. Sacks' knowledge of education and ability to convey that knowledge to prospective teachers. A completely frustrating waste of time.

Hmmm...One of those classes where you'll either hate it or love it. It's very much run like a seminar class. There is no concrete syllabus, even though she insists on following it. Many days, she'll have students present articles and then it turns out into a class discussion instead of having her lecture. It also takes her about 20 minutes every class to get "administrative" matters settled. She's very resourceful and is head of the Barnard education department. However, she's known to play favorites and that can be a pain. The workload isn't terrible, they're actually pretty fun if you're into Education and learning. But they can require a good amount of time if you realy want everything to be perfect. I still recommend this class.