Abstract:

This article will be focused on higher education learning and teaching methodologies, based on the experience of the Master Degree in Civil Engineering at the University of Beira Interior, in Covilhã (Portugal). It aims to present the results of the practises used by scholar of urban planning and mathematical issues, both regarding the civil engineering research field. Actually, there are some similarities in between the research process features of urban planning domain and mathematics field in order to promote the students’ success.

In fact, these both scientific subjects follow analogous tasks in their research processes, not only regarding the same starting point which is the definition of the research problem, but also observing the final phase, which is based on the findings of results, or the proposed solution.
It joins scholars from the department of civil engineering and architecture, experts in spatial analysis and scholars from the department of mathematics of the University of Beira Interior.

Two case studies will be presented as examples and pioneer researches of the application of these methodological approaches. Both of them will be focused on the urban planning experiences, associated with postgraduate teachings. One of them is related to a PhD thesis in Civil Engineering and the other one relates to a master degree dissertation in Architecture.

Keywords:

Higher education, research methodologies, urban planning, mathematics, postgraduate teachings.