Plenary: From Traditional to Active Mathematics Courses: breaking the paradigm in Guatemala

This plenary is a discussion about the efforts, made by Universidad Galileo, to deal with the lack of solid high school education in mathematics of the first-year engineering students. Such efforts range from innovative supplementary courses to the design and implementation of active learning methodologies in the first mathematics courses. To assess its effectiveness, both academic and motivational variables were measured. The obtained results lead us to design different methodologies for part-time and full-time students, work to reduce anxiety levels that students present before the tests, and reinforce the link between mathematics and engineering minimizing the time invested in lectures, making the students the protagonists of their learning.