ABSTRACT
Healthcare professionals are expected to be ‘adult learners’. By this we mean that we will be independent and self-directed to a greater or lesser extent. This can refer both to the way in which we learn and, increasingly with postgraduate study or continuing professional development (CPD), the content of what is learnt (the curriculum). The curriculum has been defined as: ‘Everything that happens in relation to the educational programme’. The content of what we learn can be formal or informal, planned or unplanned. Curriculum design, the process of defining and organising learning, should address four areas: content, teaching and learning strategies, assessment processes and evaluation processes. CPD for individual practitioners introduces a personal element to ‘curriculum planning’ that very much varies from one person to another and will differ as time goes on. The principles of self-directedness are being applied to curriculum planning.
