Bill's question "what is meant by the term "curriculum development" stuck with me all week, causing me to pay attention to conversations that I may have missed otherwise.
I've just returned from 2 conferences in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan -- TLt and STLHE where I kept noticing attempts to define curriculum and curriculum development. I wonder if this is because we still don't know, or because our definitions are shifting.
I also heard references to curriculum as something that is predetermined, and exists even before the students show up. I heard "deliver the curriculum" more than once.
Then today in my inbox I read a statement about curriculum being "chosen" by someone. I didn't know what to make of it. It struck me that Bill's question: is a good place to start with most of our discussions here in SCoPE!
I think one of the most useful ways to think about curriculum comes from Grundy's work.
"Curriculum...is not a concept; it is a cultural construction...It is not an abstract concept which has some existence outside and prior to human experience."
So when does developing curriculum happen?