Abstract:

This article can be considered the second part of a previous paper about “collaborative learning advancing international students: a multidisciplinary approach”, having the experience of the Master Degree in Civil Engineering at the University of Beira Interior in Covilhã (Portugal). It aims to present a multidisciplinary approach including the subject of maths (at the Department of Mathematics) and the subject of urban planning (at the Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture), regarding the efforts that Universities are doing in order to improve their rates in terms of internationalization. However, in many cases the international students background and their previous academic skills vary according to their countries contexts. In the case of Portugal, many students are coming every year from African Portuguese speaking countries such as Angola, Cape Verde, Bissau Guinea, Mozambique and São Tomé and Prince, enriching the universities environment. Consequently, new challenges are emerging on the higher education systems, in order to prepare new strategies in terms of teaching methodologies towards a better internationalization performance. Given that African Portuguese speaking countries students have different standards of proficiency, whether in terms of territorial knowledge or comprehension of mathematics there are challenges ahead, in order to engage them successfully as part of a collaborative learning approach. The main conclusions of this article show that, in the particular case of international students from African Portuguese speaking countries, in addition to teaching the contents provided for university education, there is the need to address contents from basic and secondary education (that is, teaching some previously required background subjects). To do so, most of the time is used a methodology based on e-learning and autonomous study (always guided by the teacher).

Keywords:

International Students, African Portuguese Speaking Countries, Collaborative Learning, Multidisciplinary Approach, Civil Engineering Studies.