How is CORAL constructivist?
The CORAL model can be described as constructivist for a number of reasons. First, there is no lecturing in the CORAL courses. Instead, students use both their in-class time and out-of-class time to read assigned articles, understand assignments, interact with their fellow teammates, and complete assignments as teams. Thus, there is a movement away from the objectivist (lecturing), and teacher-centered mode of teaching to one that is more constructivist, and learner-centered, i.e., an approach that allows students to develop their own knowledge. As Vrasidas (2000) notes, In a constructivist course, the learners have a lot of control over their own learning and are given the opportunity to negotiate content, assignments, procedures, and deadlines. (p. 9). This is certainly true of our CORAL courses. Students determine research proposal topics and design as long as topics are relevant to course subject matter. This means that not all students in a CORAL course will learn the same thing b
