Abstract
This article presents an experience of teaching innovation based on the application of active methodologies in economics and business education at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU). The proposal builds on a competency teaching approach, whose objectives were to verify the effectiveness of these methodologies in the area of economics in order to reconnect the university with its social environment and enhance the competency and student-learning values. During the 2019–2020 academic year, a multidisciplinary process based on the Problem-Based Learning methodology was developed in the Introduction to Economics II: Principles of Macroeconomics course. Various teaching techniques were applied to encourage participation, autonomous student work, group work, as well as elements of social responsibility and values education. The results of the process collected quantitatively and qualitatively show improvements in the acquisition of knowledge by students and greater appropriation levels linked to greater motivation. However, reluctance and misgivings about the process also arose, which would require further work in class and a leading role by students. Greater planning, time and coordination requirements were also limiting factors for the teaching staff; however, the relevance of applying the methodology sequentially is suggested.
 
 Keywords: Active methodology, higher education, social and ethical responsibility, active learning, skills, economy.
Highlights
We live in a world where more and more voices are raised and claiming that we are immersed in a globalising process
The teaching innovation process was applied within the framework of the subject ‘Introduction to Economics II: Principles of Macroeconomics’, which is taught in the first year of the Degree in Business Administration and Management at the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration (DBAM) of the UPV/EHU, Vitoria-Gasteiz section
It was confirmed that continuous assessment, based on active methodologies and formative techniques, including Problem Based Learning (PBL), was motivating for the students who obtained extraordinary results in this part in general terms, achieving, in addition, the competences set in the objectives of the tasks and of the subject itself
Summary
We live in a world where more and more voices are raised and claiming that we are immersed in a globalising process It is a context where there is an intersection of crises at a structural, systemic, multiple and related level (Del Rio & Celorio, 2018; Rauber, 2011). The gradual distancing that is taking place between the university and society generates a state of disconnection between the interests of society and the role of the universities, which on occasions becomes mere trainers of professionals for the system. This is undoubtedly one of their main objectives, and in the case of Spain, it is partly due to the professionalising nature that university education has traditionally had. The school – or university – as an institution that trains new generations has the obligation to keep in touch with the reality that surrounds it and to propose alternatives to prepare its students for the future (Cárdenas & Rivera, 2004)
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