Teaching world economic issues in the general education curriculum, with an emphasis on Asian case studies.

Ghosh, Koushik

Introduction

The need for an education that includes the importance of international trade and the reach of globalization in a coherent form to all university students is an imperative of our times. However, most international economics texts rarely pay attention to the complexity of issues and problems facing individual nations. The problem is two-fold in that most international texts are focused heavily on theories, and that they are generally not easily adapted for teaching at the introductory level. Even in upper level international economics courses, students understandably complain about the inability to comprehend the relationship between basic theory, and real-world economic issues and problems. Since these theories often lead to confounding conclusions in the dynamic world of new technologies and rapidly increasing international trade, parsing the issues faced by individual nations has become a necessary building block for developing an understanding of this new phase of globalization. In this article, I describe a project to help general education students, who take an introductory course in World Economic Issues, write country/ region reports, and make oral presentations.

Developing Country Reports

This project develops skills for connecting and analyzing data and recent news using basic economic theories. Students also learn how to do research, learn from reviews and critiques, prepare reports and develop creative skills in crafting presentations. Students are divided into groups in this course. Each group of students is allowed to pick a country, or a region, by the third week of the quarter. In presenting students with a choice of countries, I focus on the themes that have dominated the media during the preceding six months. For example, in Fall 2004, I discussed China, India, the Middle East, and the European Union. Typically, five students are assigned to a region, or to a country, though that depends on the number of students in the course. On average, 40 students take the World Economics Issues course.

The project consists of three distinct phases involving initial data collection and writing, a proposal for the country report, as well as an oral presentation. A student is expected to refine and revise the initial proposal using my remarks and the remarks of other members of the group. During the oral presentation, other students are expected to analyze and evaluate the reports in the form of critiques. In the final phase, the students submit papers that also include a self-evaluation report which is reflective in style and discusses the entire process of initial proposal submission, crafting the presentation, as well as the peer review of the presentation.

The First Phase

In the first phase of the project, students are allowed to pick countries and write a one-page report. Usually, the process involves an initial group discussion and a few reading assignments in which students follow their instincts about countries that they may find interesting to them. They are required to find information about domestic and international economic indicators, geography and natural resources, history and political economy, the monetary system and trade as well as other relevant socio-economic issues.

The initial reading assignments are from texts in the area of comparative economic systems, popular magazines, such as the Economist, as well as web based articles. At this stage, students are broken up into groups of five. Students discuss the purpose as well as the scope of the project within their groups and decide how to divide up the work. While the entire group participates in the initial research, each member is ultimately assigned to one particular sub-category, within a country/ region. The specific topics on a country/region may vary slightly, but are usually focused on geography and natural resources, history and political economy, monetary system, trade and current economic issues.

Students generally experience a great deal of challenge at this stage as they find themselves inundated with material. They tend to discover that after the considerable search effort new difficulties arise in sorting data and narrowing focus. This generates discussion within the group and forces students to recognize the importance of sharing data sources, which requires guidance in some cases. Students are encouraged to be consultative during this process. Creativity in style is also encouraged as is rigor in reporting references.

By the end of phase one, all groups meet with the instructor, and discuss the possibilities of improving their reports to create a coherent oral presentation. Transitions, common themes, and differences in emphasis with other groups are discussed at that point. Students in a group begin to discuss additional data collection, and presentation styles. This allows them to achieve a level of uniformity, and discuss ways of improving teamwork in order to achieve the maximum impact when making presentations.

Phase Two

In this phase, students engage in intense teamwork. They meet regularly as groups, and with the instructor, both in class, and outside class. Instructor feedback and peer evaluation of presentation slides are used to achieve "continuous improvement" of the presentation. It is ensured that group presentations have similar format, though a high degree of flexibility is allowed in the areas of content and style. Uniformity is also achieved as far as the length of each presentation is concerned.

Students are also required to share references and constantly update this information as their presentations evolve. This makes it possible for students to ask meaningful questions as they are required to pursue cross-country analysis during their presentations. By the end of this phase, students are typically ready to launch PowerPoint presentations on their assigned countries, or regions. Students are required to discuss a country's basic features characterized by the monetary system, natural resources, imports, exports, trade partners, political system, as well as special economic features.

Phase Three

Phase 3 is divided into two parts. In the first part, students deliver oral presentations. Student peers are required to undertake cross-country analysis in the form of critiques. The questions allow students to evaluate the recent economic performance of their country relative to the economic performance of other countries. In that process, they are also able to comment on the differences in political economy, monetary systems, natural resources, and social structure. They can also analyze trends and the relative importance of different sectors in these countries, and make observations about the future.

In the second part of this phase, students complete a term paper using information from their entire presentation, initial reports, and critiques. Students appeal to basic theories in economics, and a few specific theories in the area of international trade, as they organize the data, and interpret facts and issues. This is the stage at which students distance themselves from the team effort and begin to reveal their individual abilities, in terms of their grasp of the theories that are presented to them, and their ability to relate them to the facts and the real issues facing the countries they are studying. This is the stage at which students are trained to think independently. They are allowed to make recommendations as long as they base their interpretations and suggestions on the theories presented to them.

Conclusion

Teaching this course over the past decade has taught me that this is an excellent way to build appreciation of the complexity of economic issues, in an increasingly globalized world. I embarked on this journey, convinced of the need for such a course, which would be available to students across the university. However, I was not certain of my ability to deliver it efficiently. Despite students' complaints about the labor intensity of the course, they also comment on its rewarding nature, thus vindicating my madness.

Appendix A

Country Report: Phase 1

Purpose. This assignment is designed to focus on and accurately portray a single country /region during this phase of your research.

Assignment: You are to collect information about foreign trade and other relevant domestic socio-economic indicators of the country/region assigned to you. It is imperative that you collect information on political systems, relevant history and economic resources.

Format: All information collected must be presented in a one-page report. Reports must be typed (single spaced). Five (5) identical copies of the report should be submitted for all three outputs (one-page report, term paper, and oral presentation). Your finished report should be a concise, clear, economic picture of the country. Accuracy, relevance of information, richness of sources and overall appearance all play significant roles in the report's evaluation.

Appendix B

Country Report: Phase 2 and 3:

Oral Presentation and Term Paper

Revise your Phase 1 assignment and formalize into two outputs (term paper and oral presentation):

a. In Appendix D you are given two sample country report that gives some indication of what your report could look like.

b. The general format of your report (term paper and oral presentation) should include the following and rely on these guidelines:

[] Country name, "Country Reports," and student name should appear as illustrated.

[] All information ass detailed in phase 1

[] Additional information or topics may be included if it is relevant to the assignment (example: default on foreign debts, capital market crash, housing boom, IT development).

[] The oral presentation must follow the guidelines that will be presented during the class demonstration.

[] All oral presentations must be created with PowerPoint and relate closely to the term paper.

c. All critiques must be developed using the guidelines presented in Appendix C.

Appendix C

Country Report:

Critiques

[] Assessment of strengths and weaknesses (style and content).

[] Draw comparisons with your country, by building on Phase 1 discussions.

[] Questions that you have for the presenter (suggest sources).

Appendix D

Case Study: "Eyes on Asia: Japan" Presented by Economics 102.01, World Economic Issues Names of Presenters

I. Introduction

1. Monetary System 2. Trade Partners 3. Imports and Exports 4. Other Socio-Economic Indicators

II. Historical And Geographical Background

1. Japan's dependency on imported resources 2. Key events surrounding the Meiji Restoration 3. Japan's current political structure

III. Economic Successes

1. Moral code 2. Kaisha: the corporate family 3. Beliefs in business contributing to success 4. Keiretsu: the business elite 5. Giant trading companies, and banks

IV. Economics Problems

1. Political problems 2. Why Japan is in trouble 3. What needs to be done 4. Possible solutions and the inherent disadvantages

V. The Future: The End Of Fiscal And Banking Woes

Case Study: "Eyes on Asia: Malaysia" Presented by Economics 102.01, World Economic Issues Names of Presenters

I. Introduction

1. Geography, Political and Monetary System (Straits of Malacca)

2. Trade Partners (India, China and the West)

3. Imports and Exports (Palm Oil, Semiconductors, and Islam Hadare)

4. Other Socio-Economic Indicators (Literacy, Health, Pluralism)

II. Historical And Geographical Background

5. Malacca's Importance As A Trade Hub (Ref.: Janet Abu-Lugod)

6. Tamil traders from India and the Ming Voyages (Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice)

7. The arrival of the Arabs, and the European Colonists (Of Islam, Rubber and Tin)

III. Economic Successes

8. Malaysia's Role in ASEAN

8. Palm Oil and other Commodities

9. Penang and the Semiconductors

10. Bio-fuels and Bio-tech

11. Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC)

IV. Political-Economic Problems

12. What happens when a plantation economy takes root (Palm Oil)

13. Socio-ethnic division of labor and New Economic Policy (Malay's, Indian's, and Chinese)

14. Islam and the State (The Iranian Model vs. The Mahathir Model)

15. The Bhumiputera Issue: Affirmative Action for the Majority, Employing Islam

16. Immigrant Labor (Indonesia and Philippines (Criminalization and an Underclass)

V. The Future: Vision 20-20: What About The Haze?

Koushik Ghosh, Central Washington University