Shanna Pearson

This professor has taught: PLCY100, PLCY306, PLCY399R, PLCY400, PLCY734

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Shanna Pearson PLCY306 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/10/2024	simply DO NOT take this class with her. being a college student is hard enough but having her as a professor makes it worse. never experienced a professor like her before. harsh grader, harsh professor, inconsiderate, insatiable. does not know what a rough draft is and grades it as though it is the final paper. please, if you can take any other professor, save yourself and do so. goodluck!
Shanna Pearson PLCY306 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/06/2024	Dr. Pearson is undoubtedly smart, knowledgeable, and clearly accomplished. However, she is not a good professor. Throughout the semester, there were moments when I felt belittled by her demeanor. She often presented herself in a way that made me and other students feel as though she didn’t care about our feedback regarding assignment grading or class organization. When I emailed her for clarification on assignments, her responses were often unnecessarily rude, adding to the stress of completing the work. Although she did provide answers, the tone and approach made the process feel frustrating and discouraging. Every time I felt like I was making progress in the class, something would happen to knock me back down. While Dr. Pearson is a kind person, she sometimes came across as viewing herself as morally and academically superior simply because she is the professor and we are the students. While I understand that a certain dynamic exists in the student-teacher relationship, repeatedly experiencing this attitude during lectures was disheartening. It made me feel as though nothing I did was good enough and that voicing concerns was pointless, as she seemed unwilling to accept criticism or advice. If I could give her a 0/5 I would. I have never had so much frustration with a policy professor but I truly felt that the way she taught this class made the students feel more like children than college students.
Shanna Pearson PLCY306 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/05/2024	Dr. Pearson is undeniably a well-accomplished and knowledgeable researcher; unfortunately, she is not very good at being a professor. She is disconnected from what it means to be a college student. The course has two semester-long group projects that run congruently, which is very taxing and, at times, confusing. The entire class is centered around group work, meaning that there is no opportunity to earn a grade without the impact of another person. Dr. Pearson is also weirdly obsessed with catching students using AI. Multiple times throughout the semester, she used class time to rant about artificial intelligence and accused students of being cheaters with no substantial proof. In class discussions, Dr. Pearson is rude and degrading, putting down students who make points she disagrees with. I can confidently say I would have preferred to take this class with any other professor in the School of Public Policy.
Shanna Pearson Anonymous 12/04/2024	Professor was extremely rude and condescending. She made a lot of comments telling us to "drop out" which was very insensitive and triggered many students including myself. When you are trying really hard to achieve something, you don't want to hear your professor tell you to just give up. The environment is very toxic and her feedback is often straight up bullying. She also has anger issues and will take it out on our class. So much busy work. I think I would've really enjoyed this course if it was taught by a different professor. The content was very repetitive and homework asks to do the same thing over and over again. Although I have gotten good grades on my assignments, that is not reflective of how much I learned. She has had a student cry before. She laughs every time she disagrees with something and if you ask question that she considers not a good one, she will sarcastic laugh in your face. It was quite uncomfortable to watch
Shanna Pearson PLCY306 Anonymous 11/26/2024	Way too much busy work and insane expectations for students who have hectic schedules and many other classes. No remorse or empathy is shown to students. I see the benefit of this class and have learned a lot however, its just not a good/productive environment.
Shanna Pearson PLCY306 Expecting an A- Anonymous 11/07/2024	never once have I had a policy professor who doesn't seem to care about there students the way professor pearson does. when i sit in the class i try to hold back tears the whole hour and 15 minutes. God forbid some one asks a question that she may not agree with, the answer is some sort of half assed, rude, ignorant response. Followed by some laughter if the answer is wrong. Don't get me started on the major assignments, the harsh feedback does not leave room for improvement but rather makes you feel like and actual idiot. I understand we are here to learn but being disrecptpful is not something that I thought a policy professor could be. She would rather stand in front of the class flaunting her work (don't even ask me what she did because I genuinely have not clue) than helping student understand where they fell short and help them to improve. Giving comments like "your wrong" or "i dont care about this" are words I dont think should come out of any professors mouth. if you have the opportunity to not take this class with pearson, take the opportunity. She lacks any support for students emotions and wellbeing and will continue to put them down due to the fact that she has a "degree" and seems to "know more" than any student in her classroom.
Shanna Pearson PLCY306 Expecting an A- Anonymous 11/04/2024	She is rude, inconsiderate, and one of the least collaborative professors I have ever had. While the workload is bearable, that isn't really the problem. The content is important and I can see how research will be applied towards our later degree. Her teaching it makes me want to ram my head into my handwritten notebook (no technology in class). She talks down to every student who comes to see her or participates in class. When students go to her with a complaint, she ignores their complaint entirely and instead just says something along the lines of it is what it is. There's been multiple instances in class when a student will raise their hand and point out how something she said or is doing makes them uncomfortable, and rather than apologizing, she doubles down on what she said, citing that it was just "misinterpreted". I really don't know how talking down about how everyone in the class feels unsafe is misinterpreted. I know a couple peers who talked to her directly and she outright ignored their comments. I highly, highly recommend taking a class where the professor wants you to succeed. She treats us as if we are stupid and regularly compares between her two classes. I don't know anyone that feels that support from her. If you are reading this, Professor Pearson, laughing something off doesn't make what you just said outright mean. I hate how little value she sees in us, it is disappointing to experience. Every policy professor I have had has acknowledged that their students are smart and capable and will go onto impressive, impactful. From her, I get: give up hope. If you do have to take her, go in knowing that her standards are set internally and she won't really share what they are in a communicative way. You will probably not meet them. No one does. Also, she makes her students print out our homework and buy 100 dollar textbooks that are used for three weeks. As a public policy professor in a school whose motto is "Do Good", I hope you see how discriminatory and inconsiderate that is.
Shanna Pearson PLCY306 Expecting a B Anonymous 11/30/2023	She is a nice lady, but a terrible professor. Do not recommend. The course is so boring, even though 306 is supposed to be interesting, and the whole course was basically repeating the same topics and themes. She makes you do readings that are insanely long and time-consuming, just to lecture on the same material in class. On top of that, there is no tech allowed in class, and you have to print everything out, which is so unreasonable for a reading and writing-heavy class. The class is so boring, and you never really know much of what you are learning, since it really doesn't stick. She also grades really harshly, and most of the heavy grading assignments are at the end of the semester. Lots of work. And she gives pop reading quizzes, so you literally have to handwrite or print notes for those super long readings. While shes a nice professor, and tries to make the class good, its just not. Take another 306 course that has an interesting topic that you are meant to learn. I normally always get above A's, but for this class, I am not surprised to get lower than a B+. Since all the heavy grading is at the end, you cant really bring your grade up. It just goes down.
Shanna Pearson PLCY306 Expecting an A- Anonymous 11/28/2023	She is what the French would call "les incompetents." Has no idea how to run a class and just rambles on about the exact same thing for class. She does pop quizzes that she says are to grade for overall comprehension but they are actually about tiny obscure details of the readings. She grades them how she would like to see the questions answered and not off of the objective truth. Puts trick questions in the quizzes. Gives unclear and pointless assignments. The readings have been slightly different versions of the same material all semester but you have to read it and take notes just for the quizzes. The class she taught was completely different from the one listed on Testudo. Everything has to be turned in on paper in class which is absurd as we live in the 21st century. Spent the first 5 minutes of class saying how she was sympathetic that we were so stressed and then laughed when she handed out a pop quiz. The class is fine with her just generally pretty pointless and could learn everything she "teaches" in about an hour of googling research methods. If you want to learn take someone else.
Shanna Pearson PLCY100 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 05/21/2022	This professor is highly unorganized and grades too harshly for an intro-level course. Too much is left up to TA's and grading differs between them. Does not share lecture slides and strays off topic easily. You can never really pinpoint what you are learning at any given point, and due to this, exams (which were essay format) are very difficult to prepare for. Prof seems nice at first but when you meet with her one on one, she is not. Would not recommend. Alternatively, I've heard great things about Eric Luedtke, and would recommend taking the course when he teaches it.
Shanna Pearson PLCY100 Anonymous 05/17/2022	Dr. Pearson is a sweet lady but a horrible professor. She turned an introductory level course that was known for being easy into a class that everyone hated. Class time was pointless and full of busy work, and she made assignments during the last 2 weeks worth 50% of our grade. Since taking this class I have lost interest in public policy.