OLDFall 2022 Law School Course Evaluations

What aspect(s) of the course or instruction could be improved? Professor Burstein not teaching it.

It feels as though even when classmates are prepared with the material she still tries to stump them with cold calls by asking questions that do not feel particularly relevant. She teaches the class like an IP class at times rather than civ pro. In class, she answers questions but it feels like she never really gets to an answer. Instructor ' s approachability. Instructor ' s willingness to answer questions effectively instead of giving round about answers or simply telling us that we should know everything in the book All of it. Professor Burstein’s instruction was incredibly difficult to follow. She had a tendency to stray off topic regularly, and spent more time talking about her own professional experience than focusing on the actual reading assignments. Additionally, Professor Burstein frequently took a condescending tone with students and seemed almost frustrated when we weren’t understanding the material as she presented it. I can’t speak for others, but I felt alienated and nervous to ask questions. There is no doubt Professor Burstein is knowledgeable in Civ Pro, but her delivery needs improvement. Further, she calls a single student at the beginning of each case and focuses on them the entire time, which makes it difficult to remain engaged - it’s a large class and Professor Burstein is the only one with the microphone. Obviously cold-calling is a part of law school, but to spend the entire lecture going back and forth with 1-2 students leads many students to zone out. I think there could be more connection of the cases to the concepts. Sometimes I felt like it was just reading off the case and then the rule and not connecting the 2 and explaining a bit more. She could provide more helpful slides, she could make a hypo for us outside of the midterm, she could make herself available during Office Hours. If professor Burnstein did not teach the class. Sarah Burstein ' s teaching was unprofessional and did not improve my understanding of the course content. If anything, it detracted from my understanding of the content. Overall, I learned how to effectively teach myself course material. Professor Burstein is quite rude in responding to questions in class and makes the students hesitant to ask questions. The way that she picks a single person to focus on for the majority of the class makes it more difficult for the other students to stay engaged. She is unclear in many of her instructions and makes it difficult for students to clarify any questions. This class was all over the place. The professor could be more available to her students in office hours like other professors who did not state to speak with the TA and review material before coming to her. She did not want us to keep the mock midterm or rubric and did not give example of a policy question, which was odd. The other professors clearly expressed what they look for in the exam and give multiple hypos

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