Week 2: The Dimensions of Learning.

The Dimensions of Learning (DoL) is a learning framework that is considered to be a compendium of our latest understandings of best practice pedagogical practice. The DoL is a ready reference that is particularly useful for planning and unit development. It is a reflection of what good teaching practice should utilise in giving students the best chance of achieving learning outcomes.
The central concept of the DoL is that teaching should be rich, diverse and build on prior knowledge and also provide links with other knowledge and the real world. Critically, the DoL is peer reviewed and authored by teaching professionals.
The DoL is constructed from 5 interlocking dimensions, “the dimensions of learning” and include the following:
I am going to discuss the dimensions from a teacher’s point of view!

Dimension 1: Attitudes and Perceptions:
The DoL argues that the first dimension in the learning process is making sure that the students firstly; feel comfortable in their learning environment, and secondly; feel comfortable with what is being taught and how it is being presented (Marzano and Pickering, 2006).

Dimension 2: Acquire and Integrate knowledge:
The next thing a teacher needs to do is help students acquire and integrate knowledge. The DoL suggests that this is done through breaking knowledge into declarative and procedural components. This is done as these two knowledge types are acquired and integrated differently and modern psychologists think that knowledge as, “declarative and procedural” is a primary distinction the brain makes when taking on new knowledge; this is a cognitive process (Mclnerney & Mclnerney, 2006) & (Marzano and Pickering, 2006).

Dimension 3: Extend and Refine:
Students need to take the knowledge that they have just acquired and link it with other knowledge they have, they need to compare, contrast, and analyse for anomalies. This helps students better understand and use their knowledge and allows them to be more versatile with their knowledge; applying it to unique situations (Marzano and Pickering, 2006).

Dimension 4: Use Knowledge Meaningfully:
Students need to apply the knowledge they gained to solve problems in the real world. They need to decide how to use their knowledge and whether their application is appropriate. They also need to use their knowledge to make decisions, formulate, and solve problems that may not be immediately obvious (Marzano and Pickering, 2006).

Dimension 5: Habits of mind:
Students need to have and use good habits of mind to learn and utilise their new knowledge. This dimension is about how students think and should be taught to them so they can learn better. Good habits of mind are what good thinkers display when they apply their minds and knowledge to a problem (Marzano and Pickering, 2006).

Reference:
Mclnerney, D. M., & Mclnerney, V. (2006). Educational psychology: constructing learning (4th ed.). Frenchs Forest, NSW, Australia: Pearson Education Australia.

Marzano, R. J., Pickering, D. J. (with Arredondo, D. E., Blackburn, G. J., Brandt, R. S., ... Whistler, J. S.). (2006). Dimensions of learning teacher’s manual (2nd ed). Heatherton, Victoria, Australia: Hawker Brownlow Education.

Here is a link to a good site:
http://www.mcrel.org/dimensions/whathow.asp