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.
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Source: Statista website at http://tinyurl.com/zsxbuyl. © Statista 2016.
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