US STUDENTS TO FINALLY GET AN EDUCATION OF ASIA FROM THE KOREAN PERSPECTIVE–AS EDUCATORS VISIT THE COUNTRY OF S. KOREA RICH IN CULTURE STRIVING IN CAPITALISM AS IT RISES FROM THE ASHES GROWING FASTER THAN ANY COUNTRY AFTER THE KOREAN WAR ENDED IN 1953 TO REVIVE ITS RICH CULTURE TO THE WORLD–AND NOW US STUDENTS TOO CAN EXPERIENCE THE CULTURE OF KOREA

……This program has been supporting overseas projects in training, research and curriculum development in modern foreign languages and regional studies for U.S. teachers, students and faculty, by providing grants to them.
Awardees are chosen through a strict selection process and 16 institutions won the grant this year, including William Paterson University's project on Korea.
This project has been led by William the university's faculty comprised of three Korean professors _ Dr. An Hee-jung, an associate professor of educational technology, Dr. Hong Eun-young, an associate professor of literacy, and Dr. Park Keum-jae, an associate professor of sociology.

"Korea's history and culture have been often overshadowed by content on China and Japan in the U.S. middle and high school curriculum," Professor Hong told The Korea Times.
"Under these circumstances, we felt the need to develop curriculum materials on Korea and share them with other teachers and schools. This is why we designed our project," he said.
The group has been awarded the largest amount _ $85,000 (86.5 million won) _ among all 16 awardees, which suggests the U.S. government weighs importance of the project on Korea.

"Korean is identified as one of the critical languages across the U.S. In need of human capital who are able to understand Korean culture, the U.S. government might have given high marks to our project, I guess," Professor An said.
According to her, there are 13 languages listed as critical languages in the U.S. including Chinese, Japanese and Russian, as well as Korean.
With the huge funding, the three Korean professors have focused on exploring Korean history, culture and education system through experiential learning.
"What we cared most while selecting six participants was specificity of their lesson plans, because the ultimate goal of our project is to actually affect American students after returning to the U.S.," An added.

Coogan's detailed lesson plan about Korean history seemed to have made him focus on historical periods.

"We traveled across five cities _ Seoul, Gongju, Gwangju, Busan and Gyeongju _ to visit historical sites. For me, Gwangju was the most memorable city in that I became aware of its sad history in which a lot of sacrifices were made for democracy," said Coogan who will teach history at schools in the future.
In addition, participants attended seminars at the Korean Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation, as well as the Korean Education and Research Information Service, to learn about the country's educational system…..

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2014/08/181_163695.html