Teaching business taxation through problem-based learning

Teaching in the field of economics and business faces significant challenges as external entities increasingly call for graduates with the ability to solve different problems from a practical perspective. With this serving as context, the objective of this work is to evaluate the innovative methodologies implemented in the field of business taxation; specifically, that of problem-based learning. This teaching methodology consists of using the actual economic-financial information that is used by external entities to settle this tax figure and as such places students in a similar situation to that in which they are going to find themselves working in the future. The results obtained through the use of statistical inferential techniques, applied to a sample of students divided into two groups determine that, in addition to acquiring a practical view of a problem, there are significant differences in student academic performance depending on the teaching methodology used. As such, the results from this work are to be added to (although still scarce in frequency) the other effective problem-based learning methodologies that have been implemented in the field of economics in the Spanish university system. The objective of such is to show that a problem-based learning methodology can be successfully implemented in the teaching of public economics.