History Of The Learning & Development

Why should we know about the history of L&D? Aspects of learning and development have been linked to ancient civilizations around the globe. The history of corporate L&D has come a long way over the last 125 years and learning and development have changed dramatically during the last century.

Focusing on prehistoric times, instruction was limited to survival skills. Children would pick up skills by watching their parents and other members of the group hunt, gather fruit, fish, or start a fire, and then imitate them. It is the earliest and most prevalent type of direct, on-the-job training.

In the 5^th century BC, the Chinese philosopher Lao-Tse wrote:

“If you tell me, I will listen. If you show me, I will see. But if you let me experience, I will learn.”

One of the first learning philosophies is built around this quotation. Confucius and other Chinese philosophers began employing the case study approach after Lao-Tse.

In the middle ages the demand for specialized knowledge and abilities rose along with the complexity of the work and the technologies used. Parents would send their kids to an experienced craftsman to learn a trade if they were short on knowledge and tools.

Trades at this time were organized into guilds, which established requirements for the goods produced and guidelines for the trade's practice.

As the nature of work has changed in every industry, learning goals have expanded beyond increasing productivity on straightforward manual activities to give employees the abilities required to carry out difficult and dynamic tasks. Technology has made it possible for learning, which was once almost solely done on-the-job by supervisors(Kraiger, Ford, 2007).

When in Industrial revolution (1850-1940) the demand for manufactured goods skyrocketed during the Industrial Revolution, which accelerated manufacturing and necessitated skilled personnel to operate the machinery.

Since classrooms were then the standard setting for teaching, "factory schools" were constructed within the confines of existing factories.

Less trainers were required because multiple workers may be trained simultaneously in a classroom setting by a single instructor.

World War II influenced the focus of applied psychology research to be on the effectiveness of learning programs, particularly in military contexts. During the post-war period, the industry gradually adopted the lessons learned about effective learning during the war and acquired a major funding partner, the U.S. military.

Classroom learning and on-the-job learning were the two main types of learning throughout this time. The instructional systems development model was one of the earliest widely used frameworks for creating learning.

This era also brought the development of new learning methods such as using computers, television, case studies, and role-playing to the hospitality industry as well. The scope of learning and development also expanded to include cross-cultural learning, focus on the development of the individual employee, and the use of new organization development literature to frame learning programs.

References

Becker, G. S. (1993). Human capital: A theoretical and empirical analysis with special reference to education (3rd ed.). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

Campbell, J. P. (1971). Personnel training and development. Annual Review of Psychology, 22 565-602.

Jacobs, R. L., & Jones, M. J. (1995). Structured on-the-job training: Unleashing employee expertise in the workplace. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler.

Kraiger, K. & Ford, J. K. (2007). The expanding role of workplace training: Themes and trends influencing training research and practice. In L. L. Koppes (Ed.), Historical perspectives in industrial and organizational psychology (pp. 281-309)