I loved this class! The material is straightforward. You are graded on four projects, a weekly chapter review, and in-class "pop" quizzes. They are not too difficult. He totally wants you to succeed, and I love that he designed the class to reflect how we best learn, which is literally what he is teaching about. I am so glad I took this course!

He is a good professor that is passionate and knowledgeable about the topics he is teaching. He wrote the textbook, after all. Very insightful and reasonable towards all students' circumstances.

i clicker quizzes every class in place of midterm and final. does not post lecture slides until the following week. content and lectures are boring and repetitive. no offense to prof mayer himself; he's a kind person.

For anyone with attention deficits don't take this course. He doesn't post slides before the class and quiz questions are extremely specific with 1 minute to finish each question in class. Lectures are long and boring. A lot of quiz questions come from very specific studies in the reading and he assigns 2 50 page chapters per week.

I'm shocked people rated him so highly. Im surprised someone who teaches educational psychology can't teach... since he has all the info there. Lectures are painfully long and boring, they feel like an eternity. The slides suck and he changes them so fast, goes on tangents at least 4 times per lecture ab irrelevance, like eugenics. don't do it!

You can really tell Professor Mayer cares about teaching and the success of his students. So long as you do the work and follow instructions, you should get an A in the class

By far one of the most kind hearted and inspirational professors I had. When assigned to do his project assignments, he provides great feedback and made me better at writing psychological research. His goal in his class is to make you actually learn which he does brilliantly. His class was very fun and I highly recommend taking him! :)

Grade is based off in class pop quizzes ( 2-4 questions), small projects (4 total), and chapter reviews. All of which are super easy. He gave us a chance to redeem any missed quiz questions in the last lecture. This class is an easy A and the prof loves what he does and puts an emphasis on education rather than grades.

Super interesting class. One of the only classes at UCSB where I felt like learning was more emphasized than grades. He likes asking student opinions and welcomes all questions and class discussion. Really great teacher.

He reminds of a sweet Italian grandpa. But it shrouds the fact that his lectures are so boring and it doesn't help that people are so annoying in class. Ask him personal questions after class. He goes off topic a lot. His test questions require you read a long book and remember one experiment and those results go against what he includes in lecture

Being in this class was a slow painful death. Never thought a class focused on teaching/learning would have a professor who couldn't teach or make the material somewhat interesting. Buy the books if you have insomnia because reading the first page will make you fall asleep so fast. Boring class, stay away, I had more fun with physics and ochem.

Really great class if you are interested in education. There is a ton of reading but it is basically the same as what's presented in the lecture so doesn't make the class more complicated. Tests are super fair and your grade also consists of pretty straight forward projects and in class quizzes. Overall great class and super nice man.

Mayer is a nice and a pretty funny old guy, but I genuinely was not so interested in the material it's making the class difficult to get through. This class is not hard, the material is fairly simple, you just have to put forth the effort. I didn't really try on the first exam and got an 82. For every 10 points higher on final 1 notch up: A -> A+

Dr. Mayer is amazing! He genuinely cares about student success and learning concepts. Both textbook and lecture are important for the class, but the content is very clear if you attend and read! Highly recommend his classes!

As long as you do the readings, you are pretty much guaranteed an A. The lectures weren't very helpful, but the readings covered everything you need to know in order to do well in the class. The exams are super straightforward as are the assignments. The material is both interesting and easy to grasp. I would definitely take this class again.

Professor Mayer did not use power points for lecture despite class consensus voting for pwrpoints. Even when using whiteboard there was no structure to it and wrote down important terms/authors so it was easy to lose track throughout lecture. I personally relied on the book but the reading was poorly written I Would prefer another class if possible

Loved this class, so straightforward and the tests were pretty easy. You absolutely must attend lecture to pass the class because the material is based on studies. One midterm and final, some class participation.

I actually really like professor Mayer's lectures. BUT HIS TESTS ARE SO AMBIGUOUS. completely unfair tests! his questions and answers were so vague- I had no idea what he was asking about and he wasn't there during the exam, the TAs couldn't answer the questions either. Overall, BEWARE! Do not take him because his tests are completely unfair

Not a good professor at all. The textbook was long and rambling. Did not use powerpoints in lecture and it was almost impossible to stay awake in class. Test questions were very ambiguous.

Fantastic Teacher! Empathizes with students in terms of learning and retaining material. Knows how to dissect the material into ways that are easy to digest. (pre-class quizzes) Read the book! (all of his class material comes from it) Really wants to help his students not just learn, but master material. HIGHLY recommend him for any class.

Very knowledgeable good teacher, but very hard class. doesnt use powerpoint so I found it very hard to follow & stay awake. Exams were MC & short answer. grades hard on short answer. gives pop quizzes which you can't make up points for-my grade dropped because i missed 2 of them when i went back east for a funeral. study hard & go to class!

Interesting class. Nice person, lectures are well organized & clear. Assigned readings are from his own textbook, which is easy to read. Exams are fair, you should do fine if you pay attention in class & study. Grades are based on in-class participation questions, a midterm, & a non-cumulative final.

Mayer is a decent professor, seems to care about his students a lot. However, his textbook is absolutely terrible. I don't understand how he teaches educational/learning methods and writes such a horrendous textbook. Hands down one of the worst books I've ever had to study out of. This class would have been better if not for his book.

Professor Mayer is a great teacher. His exams are not really that difficult and you do practice quizzes. You must show up to class though because everything is written on the board. The readings are OK but a lot of it he goes over in class he usually asks 1 or 2 questions from the readings on the midterm or final. If you can, take this class