Diane J. Harris

At first, I thought Harris was too hard-core for a summer session. However, after a couple of lectures, I found out that Dr. Harris was not as bad as she seemed at first. She is one of those teachers that "grow on you". She is entertaining and knows her subject. The group facilitations were not as difficult as I initially thought, but the class is not for people who absolutely despise working in groups.

If you are considering psy451 in summer school, think twice. Did you ever notice the paucity of evaluations given to Ms. Harris? There's a reason for that, one tries to forget the experience ASAP. Clearly she does not want to lecture; she fingers through the text, reciting page number and data that will be on the next quiz, with an accompanying overhead. Asked when she would begin lecturing, she haughtily played the student off against the group by asking the class if they wanted to know what would be on the test or did they want her to lecture. She actually told us that she's not a good lecturer and we wouldn't want to hear her anyway. What ever is she being paid to do, dear taxpayer? She not only talks during exams, she constantly interrupts the class, putting students on the spot to respond to mindless questions; this kills another half-hour. She calls it group process; I call it intrusive and a waste of time. And the real clincher is, especially if you are in summer school, students become thespians, forced give presentations of chapter materials. Of course you have to meet outside on your own time to compose & practice a dumb stage play or game show routine to fill a couple of classroom hours. This is a group grade and we all know about groups and a lack of cooperation, don't we? This woman's demeanor is sour and derisive. She needs to enhance her teaching skills and get some personal counseling.

I took Dr. Harris during a 3 week summer session which actually didn't seem overwhelming, but then again I do enjoy Psychology. I like her class format. For the 1st half of the class, she would lecture on a particular cluster. Then the 2nd part of the class was devoted to your peers in group style (2 or 3 members) presenting a certain area topic that she had covered the previous day (a lot of work especially during the 3 weeks time allotted -- this meant from day 2 until the last day of class someone always presented). This was quite a learning experience & fun (although if you have stage fright it might be a challenge). Your peers are quite supportive as they will have to go through it as well. The only drawback about this is that your grade (1/2 of the class) is compared with your peers & you don't know the results until the last day of class!

Which brings me to my next point...your 2nd attempt of grade is based on a literature review. You pick a topic that you didn't present on & try to find @ least 2 journal articles pertinent to your interest & critique. This is hard b/c you really don't know what she expects since she doesn't provide any examples nor previous "personal" reports from students. Also, you have no idea how she grades or what she's basing it on. That is a major drawback in a 3 week session!!

Otherwise than that she is an excellent teacher, making psychology an enjoyable topic that you can apply.