Dimension of Learning

Teachers need to look at teaching from the perspective of the learners. Learners go through different phases of thinking as they are taught. A good teacher will focus on the present learning needs of the students and select strategies that will enhance that type of thinking and learning. Dimensions of Learning (DoL), is a framework helpful for planning instruction that integrates the teaching of thinking along with learning content areas. Developed by Marzano and colleagues (Pickering, Arredondo, Blackburn, Brandt & Moffett, 1992), DoL assumes that learning involves thinking. They identified five interactive levels or types of thinking. The diagram below shows the connection between these levels of learning. 

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Though this diagram may imply the presence of a hierarchy in the levels of learning/thinking, one may move from one level to another, up or down given a particular learning situation. Therefore, a learner may see her/himself, say at level one—needing to form positive attitudes and perceptions about learning, or at level four—using knowledge meaningfully. Several factors need to be considered while evaluating the learning/thinking level needs of the learners. Considerations of age, current schema (prior knowledge), learning modalities, and motivation are a few of these factors.

 

Let us get better acquainted with DoL. This discussion is just an introduction but units three to eight will give greater focus on DoL. Perhaps this is a good time to look at the outline format of Dimensions of Learning. Hope this outline helps to see the finer details of the five levels of learning/thinking that we are discussing. It may be a good idea to look at each level at this point.

 

Basic to the belief about learning is the idea that we must begin with the heart or emotions of the learners by forming positive attitudes and perceptions about learning. This concept is parallel to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. There are several ways that a teacher can help build a positive atmosphere in the classroom for learning. It has to do with forming positive perceptions about two main aspects of a classroom learning situation--classroom climate and classroom tasks. Hope the suggestions provided are both practical and agreeable with you. These suggestions are simple to implement, too.

 

The next level is thinking used for acquiring and integrating knowledge. We, teachers, find ourselves spending a substantial amount of time in this level of learning, and appropriately so. For this is where the foundational type of learning takes place. Knowledge is said to be of two types—declarative (theoretical) and procedural (skill-based). Please check whether you can differentiate between the two types of content knowledge by doing this simple exercise. How did you do? Hope that exercise clarified the two concepts, declarative and procedural knowledge. Myriad strategies are at the disposal of teachers to address this level of thinking of learners. Hope your curiosity is aroused and you wish to go on finding more about DoL.

 

It is impossible to talk about and practice all available strategies within the limited time we have. But certainly selected novel and effective strategies need our attention. For teaching declarative knowledge, some of the strategies highlighted will be, KWL, Concept Attainment, Taba Inductive, Pictographs, Organizational Patterns, Advance Organizers, and Memory. For teaching procedural knowledge, some of the helpful strategies are Think-aloud, Flowcharts, and Practice schedules.

 

Now we come to the third level of DoL which has to do with thinking used for extending and refining knowledge. Here strategies for higher levels of thinking are presented. Questioning, Comparing, and Abstracting is some of the strategies that will be discussed and practiced.

 

The fourth level of DoL has to do with thinking used for using knowledge meaningfully. We need strategies that call for higher levels of thinking used for application purposes. Strategies such as Decision Making Matrix, Problem-Based-learning (PBL), and Group Investigation are helpful for achieving this.

 

The fifth and the highest level of thinking is that which will enhance productive habits of mind. Strategies of Synectics, Feelings, Values Clarification are useful here.

 

While it is helpful to think of teaching from the perspective of the learning needs of students, it is also important to find where these strategies belong together. Research conducted by Joyce and colleagues decades ago resulted in the strategies package called Models of Teaching (MoT). The next segment introduces this concept. 

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