BENEFITS AND RISKS OF COLLABORATIVE LEARNING IN A CULTURALLY DIVERSE ENVIRONMENT

Collaborative learning is an inevitable educational approach that higher education institutions are facing today. This type of learning often occurs among students with different set of experiences, values, and cultural backgrounds. The objective of this work is to gain insights on how university students perceive collaborative learning in a culturally diverse environment. Data were collected among students of Consumer behaviour course at the Faculty of Economics, University of Valencia, Spain in October 2017. A qualitative study was carried out through four focus groups conducted with 32 students from 16 different countries and four different continents, all ageing between 20 and 26 years old. While every single group member was from a different country, each group contained equal number of male and female respondents. Both benefits and risks of collaborative learning are discussed according to different cultural backgrounds and gender of participants.