Futureproofing through learning and development by using design thinking: A case study of South Africa.

ACTIVATING LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT THROUGH CONSTRUCTIVIST DEVELOPMENTAL PEDAGOGY 

Constructivist learning is epistemologically positioned in viewing the world with multiple knowledge interpretations and construction. Learning is therefore both contextual and relational, it is about making meaning, which is personal and unique to the individual. For as Biggs (2003, p. 13) states: 

Learning is thus a way of interacting with the world. As we learn, our conceptions of phenomena change, and we see the world differently. The acquisition of information in itself does not bring about such change, but the way we structure that information and think with it does. 

Developing skills and capabilities, such as those indicated above, that focus on self- development requires learning and development proffesionals to possess a heightened awareness of themselves as professionals and commit to continuous learning, self- development, and renewal. Therefore, “employees must be given the opportunity to     

develop their own personal and collective positions on human capital issues, and to discover possibilities for activating those positions through praxis” (Boyce et al., 2012, p. 66). 

It is true today as it was yesterday that workers across each industry and sector will leave to pasture new if they feel undervalued with no growth plan. Upskilling is a solution but not the be all. As demands and delivery requirements change to meet the needs of today’s customer, how can organisations keep pace? Teams have no option but to learn new skills, update on old skills to meet the new. The saying, every day is a learning day rings true to the masses but how can this be done in a structured and strategic way? 

The field of learning and development is in need of new design thinking. New approaches that capture the challenges of making strategies both real and realisable. Approaches that bring life to the human dimension of creating new futures for institutions, that move us, beyond the sterility of traditional approaches in organisations. The resuscitation of an old approach that offers new possibilities - the metaphor of strategy as a process of design and how to use that to future proof through learning and development.