One of the best courses and professors I have taken at UCLA. Take this class if you would like to learn of clinically effective tips to improve academic performance and to clear up misconceptions regarding various educational practices. DO NOT underestimate this class; its easy to look at the grade distribution and think it is a walk in the park. You need to be present in every class lecture to earn participation points and complete the readings that are assigned. Rigorously study the class material and I suggest studying in groups and utilizing the retrieval method. ( google it and you will also learn about the method in class). The test questions are tricky and there is not much room for error as the midterm is approximately 30 questions( the final is longer with short answer questions). Stay on the top of your game, study effectively, and you will earn an A in this class.

Professor Givvin is life, I repeat LIFE. I have never had a professor who cares so much about her students. Her lectures were extremely helpful and it helped me understand the studies that were assigned every week. There is no textbook for this class, and you study the weekly research articles. The articles are on average 5-10 pages long so they do not take a lot of time. Totally doable. Her midterm is not tricky at all, if you actively re-read your lecture notes, you should be totally fine. It is very doable to score a good grade on the midterms. Go to her office hours if you have any doubts or if you would like to have a productive conversation. Initially, I wasn't interested in the content of the class but Professor Givvin changed that I would actually anticipate lectures.

Professor Givvin is a great professor. She really knows what she is doing! She is very approachable and knowledgeable. I highly recommend her as a professor! She makes the class interesting even if you're not that interested in the topic. There are usually 2 studies that you're assigned to read every week which she posts online. I never read them in depth because she goes over everything you need to know in the lectures. Although the lectures are almost completely about the studies you read, she talks about them in a way that helps you understand how the results can be applied in a real classroom.

Professor Givvin was amazing, I'm so very glad that I ended up taking this course. I loved that it wasn't an overly difficult course and that her explanations were so clear and she was so helpful in case you still didn't understand. I think in general she is just a very kind and compassionate teacher and academic professional. She's certainly well informed and passionate about the material, and she tries her best to impart the same to her students. She was always cognizant of our opinion and genuinely wanted to give us the best experience possible in an active way, which I think is rare for the department. I really liked that the class focused on learning through direct studies, which I think is a much more effective way of teaching an upper div, none of that route memorization of bullet points and definitions. She also took the utmost care and respect to be accomodating given the quarantine and the riots which some professors were not, I so appreciate her! The readings are manageable and I liked that there weren’t a bunch of assignments that were busy work, or an expensive textbook. There aren't any homework assignments beyond the readings or graded material beyond the exams. While I think doing some sort of mini-paper or assignment might have been interesting, its nice to not have to worry about so much in a core course. Gia was an excellent TA, she knows her stuff and her guest lecture was really well put together and interesting. How all upper divs should be!

I loved Professor Givvin! She is so knowledgeable and so sweet. I will say that she mentions she won't try to trick you on the midterms... but there have been many times where that's not true. She assigns articles to read before each class and participation is only answering clicker questions. Overall, I think if she made her exams a little less tricky and more straightforward I would 100% recommend her. But, she is a great professor and genuinely wants her students to do well. I found the articles we read very applicable and interesting as well. If you are debating taking her, take her!

As one of my friends commented earlier this year, isn't it interesting how the teachers who teach about education end up being the best educators?

Professor Givvin is no different. I don't think she could have been more clear in her delivery of class content. There really isn't much I can complain about. Participation in the class requires an iClicker Reef account, which she uses to assess attendance via quiz questions (not graded on accuracy). There is no homework except for readings that need to be completed before the beginning of each class. Exams are clearly not trying to trick you; if you attend lectures, you will get an A. Slides aren't posted, so either watching the lectures live or reviewing them on BruinCast is important.

She has a cool dog, too.

Professor Givvin genuinely cares about her students and is passionate about her field of study. The lectures are engaging and the assigned articles are extremely applicable to life. Her exams were always straightforward and taken straight from the lecture or clicker questions. As long as you take good notes and review clicker questions before an exam, you will do well. I learned so much in this class. I would definitely take her class again.

I absolutely love Professor Givvin! She is one of the sweetest, most caring professors I've had and the course material is super interesting! The course content mainly just consists of 2-3 journal articles per class, but she goes over them during class time. I know some people didn't read the articles, but I did and I definitely found that it helped me do well on the exams. I managed to get 100% on the tests, which were overall really straightforward. I would recommend reading (or at least skimming) the articles and annotating the main findings/methods. Attendance via Zoom is mandatory (she takes participation using iClicker questions), but you have 2 absences that won't count against your grade. I can't speak to how this class is in-person (I took it during COVID so it was online), but I absolutely loved it and I HIGHLY recommend!

Professor Givvin is what every professor should be like. She’s: easy to understand, compassionate about what she’s teaching, actively engaging with students’ questions and most importantly cares about what her students have to say. There are no tricky questions on her exams. Personally, I found all the articles we talked about very interesting, so I did not have to study much for both the 2 midterms and final. I was always excited for lecture. She has been one of my favorite professors in my three years at UCLA so far. Can’t recommend this class enough, please take it! You’ll learn something useful that you can apply to your life as a college student.

I took Psych 133 F with professor Givvin and she is very nice professor. You will see what I mean during quizzes. The articles are not too hard to read and if you pay attention to mostly the lecture you should be fine. I mostly skimmed the discussion section of each article before class and reviewed the power points. I got an A- but if I worked a little harder I could have gotten an A. If you can I highly suggest you take this class before it fills up. Its easy and you learn a lot.