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Guide > Pedagogical Questions > Are there basic principles that need to be followed?

Are there basic principles that need to be followed?
The short answer is YES. Cultura offers a highly flexible structure which can be adapted to a variety of contexts. However, it is built upon five basic principles which all need to be adhered to, if Cultura is going to be successfully used.

The five basic separate principles are the following:

Principle 1:
The schools participating in the Cultura Project need to be similar. A High School should work with another High School; College students need to work with students who are at approximately the same level of studies. We are very aware that systems differ from one country to another. But it is important that students work with partners who have roughly the same age and similar life experiences

Principle 2:
the language used on the forums (and on the Web in general) has to be the native language of the students (or to be more specific, the language spoken in the country where students live). This will prevent unavoidable linguistic discrepancies in the target language to become too obvious. This will also create necessary parity between the users.

The language used outside the Web-based forum discussions (namely during class-time, for papers, etc...) needs to be the target language.

Principle 3:
The conversations on the forums are always asynchronous. This allows time for reflection and analysis of what the other students say. There can be chat rooms on the side, but asynchronicity is crucial.

Principle 4:
Cultura needs to be completely integrated into the classroom. The work does not happen on the Web only. A large part of the work is and needs to be done in the classroom.

The role of teacher is therefore crucial.

Principle 5:
The work needs to take place over a sufficient amount of time if it is going to have any validity at all. We suggest a minimum of 8 weeks altogether.