Lectures for the course EAST2504 in spring 2015 followed the lecture plan without any significant deviations. 45 students followed the course, and 40 took the final exam. These numbers slightly exceed the student numbers for the previous years. It looks as if the subject is gradually gaining in popularity. More than 75% of all the students who took the exam, received grades ”B” and ”C”, the ”B” students being slightly in majority (38%). This statistic allows us to define the motivation level of the students as generally satisfactory. Five students received ”A”, for the essays with remarkably high degree of independence, often based on primary sources. There were no complains about the grades.
Judging from the answers student made to the questionnaire, the course is generally enjoying a good repute. All the students who answered the questionnaire (unfortunately six persons only did it…) gave it a relatively generous evaluation, from 4 to 6 (50% of the answers). However, it appears as if the students coming from the Japanese studies tend to perceive the course as too China-centred. Certain rebalancing appears to be needed, in the form of additional Japanese and Korean materials being included into the lecture plans. Another complaint was that the amount of information could be overwhelming. To a degree it is inevitable, as the course covers the time span of more than three millennia, and focuses on several major philosophical and religious traditions in three societies (China, japan and Korea). However, I probably will have to streamline my lecture notes, making them better structured, reducing the amount of the material and improving coherence and comprehensibility. As to the most popular topics among the students (judging from the essay themes), Confucianism seemingly retained its popularity, and nationalism in all the three main East Asian societies remained highly attractive issue for exploration as well. Otherwise, the interest in gender-related topics was palpable. Some of the best essays dealt, indeed, with the feminist movements in East Asia. I would suggest that we perhaps will need a separate lecture on the gender issues in the future. As to the teaching methods, more time for student presentations seems to be an essential and needed measure for improvement. One obligatory presentation for every student during the semester might be a needed and useful assignment, as it prepares the students to the task of essay writing.
It is not easy to draw conclusions from the students’ answers to the questionnaire, since only 6 out of 45 students bothered to answer it. If we take these answers as representative, however, it looks as if the most motivated students (the 6 persons who actually answered) liked the course as a whole (giving it the 4-6 level assessment on the scale where 1 is the worst and 6 is the best). However, the critical remarks by the students (on balancing the content, having more assignments under the way etc.) have also to be paid attention to.