This paper discusses the needs that should be fulfilled by both the teachers and the students for a
successful learning process approach. It is based on the experience of teaching civil engineering
students, both from the last years and also from 1st year, during the most recent years. Although
the problems faced at teaching each student age are very different, the essence remains similar, and
that is motivation for hard work. University students seem quite lost in the way to achieve their
goals of success. It is one of the teacher’s aims to give them back the joy of learning. Two
learning/teaching experiences are presented and discussed in what concerns course planning,
implementation, monitoring and assessment of pedagogic experiments. This paper describes all
these problems and proposes possible solutions based on empirical evidence of teaching classes
with team work in the course with more students in the University of Minho
