Professor
Raymond Rocco
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Most Helpful Review
Definitely one of the worst professors I've taken at UCLA. He doesn't really care about you learning anything. I've attended every single lecture, took extensive notes and he gave me a C in the class. He doesn't have the notion of positive feedback, seeing as his criticism on the essays due were: "This concept is wrong" or "Not necessarily true". In addition, when asked if I could go over the grade of the paper in detail, he replied with: "I believe that students lack the expertise and the knowledge of the subject to discuss grades with me" At the same time I was taking an upper division course, and putting in the same amount of work for each class, I received an A in the upper division course, and a C in the lower division course. How does that make sense?
Definitely one of the worst professors I've taken at UCLA. He doesn't really care about you learning anything. I've attended every single lecture, took extensive notes and he gave me a C in the class. He doesn't have the notion of positive feedback, seeing as his criticism on the essays due were: "This concept is wrong" or "Not necessarily true". In addition, when asked if I could go over the grade of the paper in detail, he replied with: "I believe that students lack the expertise and the knowledge of the subject to discuss grades with me" At the same time I was taking an upper division course, and putting in the same amount of work for each class, I received an A in the upper division course, and a C in the lower division course. How does that make sense?
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Most Helpful Review
Professor Rocco has a very structured lecture routine-ppt. slides that are setup purposively, something he doesn't stray far from. In lecture it is largely one sided communication, with inquiry limited to his limited office hours. He is very knowledgable about the material, which is really interesting on its own (Marcuse, Freire and Gramsci), and he gives a good explanation of their respective theories in layman terms. The reading isn't absolutely required for the class since he gives all the material he requires on the final in lecture, but it does help a lot (especially with Gramsci). This class is helpful for theory/philosophy of institutional power, political organizing, critical pedagogy, etc. I would suggest this class for someone already interested in the subject, maybe not for someone who is bedazzled by the title and thinks it a glamour course: the final essays are not glamorous. But I would suggest opting in for the weekly page responses, comprising up to 25% of your grade. It takes a lot of pressure of your otherwise sole determinator of your grade-the final. I also took Rocco for PS10, and I would suggest taking him for upperdiv rather than the lower- he cares more.
Professor Rocco has a very structured lecture routine-ppt. slides that are setup purposively, something he doesn't stray far from. In lecture it is largely one sided communication, with inquiry limited to his limited office hours. He is very knowledgable about the material, which is really interesting on its own (Marcuse, Freire and Gramsci), and he gives a good explanation of their respective theories in layman terms. The reading isn't absolutely required for the class since he gives all the material he requires on the final in lecture, but it does help a lot (especially with Gramsci). This class is helpful for theory/philosophy of institutional power, political organizing, critical pedagogy, etc. I would suggest this class for someone already interested in the subject, maybe not for someone who is bedazzled by the title and thinks it a glamour course: the final essays are not glamorous. But I would suggest opting in for the weekly page responses, comprising up to 25% of your grade. It takes a lot of pressure of your otherwise sole determinator of your grade-the final. I also took Rocco for PS10, and I would suggest taking him for upperdiv rather than the lower- he cares more.
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2022 - This is in response to his Latin American Political Theory – Rocco is very knowledgeable, and I liked the course material a lot; however the class was terribly structured. Rocco would have us do these extremely difficult quizzes that were more about memorization than understanding the concepts (one time the average was a 4/15). The concepts were difficult to understand, and he did not spend a lot of time helping students understand them more. The final consisted of an 8-10 page response paper that asked students to basically regurgitate the readings/lecture back to him, and did not let students know that attendance would severely affect peoples' grades (class was on zoom, if you missed more than 2 classes you could see your grade drop up to a whole letter grade depending on how he was feeling). Id caution anyone thinking about taking this class.
Spring 2022 - This is in response to his Latin American Political Theory – Rocco is very knowledgeable, and I liked the course material a lot; however the class was terribly structured. Rocco would have us do these extremely difficult quizzes that were more about memorization than understanding the concepts (one time the average was a 4/15). The concepts were difficult to understand, and he did not spend a lot of time helping students understand them more. The final consisted of an 8-10 page response paper that asked students to basically regurgitate the readings/lecture back to him, and did not let students know that attendance would severely affect peoples' grades (class was on zoom, if you missed more than 2 classes you could see your grade drop up to a whole letter grade depending on how he was feeling). Id caution anyone thinking about taking this class.
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2021 - This class was genuinely *so* amazing! I learned so much and had wonderful discussions with classmates & Dr. Rocco about the importance of grassroots movements and community organizing. Rocco is so smart, caring, and overall just wonderful. He shares about his own experiences with organizing, which is really insightful and inspiring. If you're interested in community organizing either personally or professionally, I definitely recommend taking this course! In terms of the course itself, the workload and difficulty was pretty balanced. While it's very reading-based, Rocco's lectures really help to break down the readings into the main points. The course is designed to ensure that students do the readings and understand them, so the main assignment was weekly summaries (which he calls "talking points") on the readings. The final was an 8-10 page comparative paper. A midterm was listed on the syllabus, however, it was cancelled.
Winter 2021 - This class was genuinely *so* amazing! I learned so much and had wonderful discussions with classmates & Dr. Rocco about the importance of grassroots movements and community organizing. Rocco is so smart, caring, and overall just wonderful. He shares about his own experiences with organizing, which is really insightful and inspiring. If you're interested in community organizing either personally or professionally, I definitely recommend taking this course! In terms of the course itself, the workload and difficulty was pretty balanced. While it's very reading-based, Rocco's lectures really help to break down the readings into the main points. The course is designed to ensure that students do the readings and understand them, so the main assignment was weekly summaries (which he calls "talking points") on the readings. The final was an 8-10 page comparative paper. A midterm was listed on the syllabus, however, it was cancelled.
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