This work aims at illustrating the topicality of Vygotsky’s thinking with regard to the application of two educational devices – Problem Based Learning (PBL) and Problem Solving Cooperative (PSC) – at one of the eight Swiss professional universities: the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland (www.supsi.ch). The distinctive feature of these approaches is that of placing the student at the heart of the learning process, so that s/he becomes the protagonist in the acquisition of the knowledge and skills necessary for the exercise of their future profession; we focus on social and health areas. These two didactic practices engender a fruitful comparison with Vygotsky’s theoretical elaboration, especially with certain key concepts of his conceptual and methodological framework: the relevance of the historical-cultural context for the subject’s growth, the zone of proximal development, the heuristic force of social interaction (in a community/group) allowing the learner to build new cognitive tools, the centrality of metacognition for learning. The main claim is that, although Vygotsky carried out his research and observations especially with regard to childhood, his contribution may very well extend to the condition of adult learning.