5. Individual human development
Here the focus is solidly on the individual, with the assumption that the individual
learns and then affects the group. The purpose is mostly about developing individuals,
not producing skills and innovation for the organization (Jacobs & Washington, 2003).
The general base is constructivist learning, e.g. through reflection, and respect for
individual’s history, with focus on individual’s meaning-making and helping
individuals to continually learn. This orientation of individual human development,
appearing in about 27 articles or 13% of the dataset, was particularly prominent in
discussions of continuing professional education and human resource development.
Research preoccupations included how to promote individuals’ self-directed learning
capability (Straka, 2000), and how to understand the relation of work to individual
developmental processes and learning styles. The role of the collective was vague or not
mentioned, but the primary assumption was that aspects of context served primarily to
foster the individual’s learning ability.