This study is to examine the state of NA(need analysis) research for building
educational programs for adults, especially in both business and community settings,
from 1990 - 2005. The study focuses on analyzing journal articles published in Korea
for the last 15 years. Through a review of the literature, some criteria to analyze
articles are determined as follows: (1)gaps between what is and what should be are
found or not, (2)target groups, (3)methods of data collection, and (4)methods of
setting priorities. This study uses National Assembly Library's search engine. Given
some conditions, finally 35 journal articles are included in this study.
This study can make some conclusions: (1)few studies investigated true gaps. In
other words, many studies explored just perceived preference and importance from
target populations, (2)although the majority of studies were keenly interested in needs
of level 1 such as program receivers, they considered only one target group, (3)the
majority of studies reported a single-method, particularly using survey, and (4)10
studies reported some methods of prioritizing needs. Fortunately, however, a few
studies published from 2000 are worthy of note in terms of fitting some criteria
above. Finally some implications for both researchers and practitioners are discussed.