Teaching East Asia: Korea Teaching East Asia: Korea | Page 107

Asia in AP, IB, and Undergraduate Honors Courses Editor’s Note: In what follows, the author describes an extraordinary workshop designed for educators. The bolded resources at the conclusion of each topic subheader contain digitally accessible materials the author discusses in the subheader narratives. Democracy in Asia By Clayton D. Brown I n June 2015, Utah State University hosted a graduate-level workshop for teachers on “Democracy in Asia: A Universal or Ameri- can System?” 1 Eight Asia specialists from three universities convened to share their expertise with local educators. Recognizing that a brief article cannot do justice to a weeklong work- shop, we are still committed to extending the fruits of that local outreach to a broader com- munity. What follows are a few highlights from each workshop session, including suggest- ed source material and engagement exercis- es that we hope are of use to other educators. Orientation Exercises Many instructors begin their courses on Asia by referencing a map, but we included an opening exercise with a twist. Workshop participants were provided with a blank map of Asia and a comprehensive list of country names and cap- itals, with the assignment to label as many of these as possible in black ink without consulting any sources. After labeling those items that they knew, students were then allowed to consult the Internet or other resources to label the remaining items that they didn’t know in red ink. On the whole, students could label China, India, and Japan, and reasonably place their respective capitals, but Southeast Asia and Central Asia became a cluster of red ink. Their results revealed to them just how much there is to learn about this vast region. We then assigned each student to an Asian country and gave them ten to fifteen minutes on the CIA World Factbook website to gather key data on their country. Then, we went outside, where students were told to arrange themselves like a map, with each student representing the placement of his or her particular coun- try relative to their neighbors. After some checking and rearranging, students were then instructed to line up according to population size, from largest to smallest. Finally, they lined up by geographic size. Variations of this exercise could be done with other national characteristics, including Freedom House rankings (see the map on page 6). Cover of 2015 Utah State University Bennion workshop brochure. Source: The Bennion workshop website at http://tinyurl.com/p5g3xq7. CIA. World Factbook. Last modified August 20, 2015. http://tinyurl.com/3ud7qhq. Why Asia Matters How does Asia impact your life? Maps showing Asia’s massive geographic size, pie graphs that display the significant portion of the world pop- ulation found in Asia, and a few statistics that show the size of Asia’s economy, which includes the world’s second- and third-largest national economies, are useful for demonstrating Asia’s relevance. The website Asia Matters for Amer- ica, hosted by the East-West Center, offers a great resource for current information and graphics related to this theme. East-West Center. Asia Matters for America. Accessed January 28, 2016. http://tinyurl.com/hybz6eq. 102 Source: Statista website at http://tinyurl.com/zsxbuyl. © Statista 2016. 107 5