The Vygotsky’s perspective in online teaching education: Observations in higher education

Abstract

Teacher education is becoming increasingly challenging in the context of education on a technological society. In a technological society, focused on performance and results, teacher education includes discussions on praxis and the complex scenario of teaching, supporting learning and evaluating among so many methodologies and psychological approaches. This same scenario requires constant qualification, knowledge, teaching skills and good practices. So, teacher education needs new possibilities. The objective of this work is to analyse the social interactions among university professors in the Teachers (Virtual) Room project. The project was based on Vygotsky’s historical-cultural perspective and on the potential of technologies, in order to create a continuous process of social interaction and teacher education. This project started in 2014 and takes place in a Business Administration course at a private institution in Rio Grande do Sul. The findings were obtained through participant observation and record of the activities of 28 teachers of the course. Through thematic analysis, the results indicate that the project contributed to: increasing teacher’s participation on the activities due to its space-time flexibility, to the exchange of knowledge and experience due to meeting the specific needs of teachers, their areas and disciplines. The project also allowed us to establish personal connections, creating intentional strategies, qualifying teaching activities and evaluations, supporting a constant interaction, despite not having the potential to replace the presence needed to subsidize teaching activities and training.