Peer Instruction and Vygotsky: an approximation from an astronomy course in higher education

This paper is the result of a master's degree research whose objective was to analyze the approximations between Vygotsky's social interactionist theory and the active methodology Peer Instruction. In this sense the study was conducted by applying the methodology in an astronomy course in higher education. Due to its extension and complexity, we present a subset of the results relating to the approximation between practice and theory, focusing on the converging points found in the application of the proposal. We also present an analysis of the assessment made by the students about the use of the methodology in the discipline, in which the approximations between the methodological assumptions and the main concepts of Vygotsky’s theory were made. It is noted that, although in the genesis of Peer Instruction such theoretical foundations have not been found, the effectiveness of the methodology can be supported by the learning theory developed by Vygotsky.