Sacred Heart Staff participate in Teaching & Learning "Instructional Leadership" programme.

Left to right (Mr. J.Woods, Prof. Barrie Bennett, Mr. B.Walsh, Mr. C. Kiely) at the teaching and Learning "Instructional Leadership" programme.

Professor Barrie Bennett taught for many years at the Ontario Institute for Studies at the University of Toronto (OISE/UT) until his recent retirement. In addition to his third level teaching, Barrie has taught at secondary, middle school and elementary school levels in Canada. 

However, Barrie’s main areas of interest relate to the theory of instructional intelligence. This broad area refers to the intersection of existing wisdom and knowledge related to curriculum, assessment, instruction, how students learn, the nature of change and the importance of systemic change. Barrie’s work in these areas has developed his international reputation and he is currently leading systemic change projects in three countries: Canada, Australia, and Ireland. In the case of Ireland, the Instructional Leadership Programme has emerged from Barrie’s initial contribution.

Perhaps the most distinguishing feature of this experience was that for most of those involved, it was their first engagement with professional development focused solely on generic Teaching and Learning rather than a subject-specific model of in-service.