Dimension of Learning: Extend and Refine Knowledge

Presented by Denise TarlintonQuality Teaching Conference

Kurwongbah State School13 August 2003

Dimension 3

How’s your thinking?

If the day before the day before yesterday was Tuesday, what is the day after the day after tomorrow?

Solution!

Tues Wed Thur Fri Sat Sun Mon

DB DB yesterday

DB yesterday

yesterday

today tomorrow

DA tomorrow

DA DA tomorrow

Dimensions of Learning Framework

Dimensions of Learning:

… is about thinking strategies

Dimensions of Learning:

…is a model/framework that provides a common understanding and language related to learning.

Dimensions of Learning is a comprehensive model that uses what researchers and theorists know about learning to define the learning process. 

Its premise is that five types of thinking- called the five dimensions of learning, are essential to successful learning. 

The Dimensions framework helps teachers to:

– maintain a focus on learning– study the learning process– plan curriculum, instruction and assessment that takes

into account the five critical aspects of learning.

Implicit in the Dimensions of Learning model, or framework, are five basic assumptions:

1. Instruction must reflect the best of what we know about how learning occurs.

2. Learning involves a complex system of interactive processes that include various types of thinking- represented by the five dimensions.

3. Curriculum programs should include the explicit teaching of attitudes, perceptions and mental habits that facilitate learning.

4. A comprehensive approach to instruction includes both teacher directed and student directed instruction.

5. Assessment should focus on students' use of knowledge and complex reasoning processes rather than on their recall of information.

Attitudes and Perceptions

Habits of Mind

Acquire and Integrate

Knowledge

Extend and Refine Knowledge

Use Knowledge Meaningfully

Dimension 3

“We learn by doing, if we reflect on what we have done.”

(John Dewey)

Why extend and refine?• The most effective learning takes place when

students extend and refine the knowledge they acquire in order to develop in-depth understanding of that knowledge.

• By making new connections, restructuring the knowledge and experiencing new insights students understand their learning at a deeper level.

• Students analyse what they have learned by applying reasoning processes that will help them extend and refine the information. 

» Comparing» Classifying» Abstracting» Inductive Reasoning» Deductive Reasoning» Constructing Support» Analyzing Errors» Analyzing Perspectives

Explicit teaching of reasoning processes:

• Help students understand the process.• Give students a model for the process, and create

opportunities for them to practice using the process.• As students study and use the process, help them

focus on critical steps and difficult aspects of the process.

• Provide students with graphic organisers or representations of the model to help them understand and use the process.

• Use teacher-structured and student structured tasks.

As a result…

• Students should see knowledge in new ways and be able to express insights, understandings, ideas or discoveries related to that knowledge.

• Students deepen their understanding of content.

• Students increase their understanding of learning as a process

“A basic principle of learning is that once acquired, knowledge changes”.

(Robert Marzano)

BLOOM’S REVISED TAXONOMY

CreatingGenerating new ideas, products, or ways of viewing things

Designing, constructing, planning, producing, inventing. 

EvaluatingJustifying a decision or course of action

Checking, hypothesising, critiquing, experimenting, judging 

 AnalysingBreaking information into parts to explore understandings and relationships

Comparing, organising, deconstructing, interrogating, finding 

ApplyingUsing information in another familiar situationImplementing, carrying out, using, executing

 Understanding

Explaining ideas or conceptsInterpreting, summarising, paraphrasing, classifying, explaining

 Remembering

Recalling informationRecognising, listing, describing, retrieving, naming, finding

 

ComparingThe process of identifying and articulating similarities and differences among items.

1. Select the items you want to compare.2. Select the characteristics of the items on

which you want to base your comparison.

3. Explain how the items are similar and different with respect to the characteristics you selected.

ComparingThe process of describing how things are

the same and different1. What do I want to compare?2. What is it about them that I want to

compare?3. How are they the same? And how are

they different

Venn DiagramObject One Object Two

Use a Venn to compare…• Numbers • Animals• Places• People• Land forms• Weather• Books• TV programs

• Illustrations or illustrators

• Holidays• Celebrations• Religions• Farms• Food• Plants etc.

Characteristics Item 1 Item 2 Item 3 Similarities/differences

1

2

3

4

T-Bar Analysis

Object One Object Two

(Frangenheim, 2002, p. 62)

Language of Comparison

• Explicit teaching of the vocabulary that students can use when sharing their thinking and learning:

• In comparison• Compared to• Similarly• Whereas• Alternatively• But• Although• On the other hand• However• In contrast

Key Points: Comparing1. Because the process of comparing can be

overused, it is important to ask if it is the best process to use to help students extend and refine the identified content knowledge.

2. Students need extensive modeling, practice and feedback in order to become skilled at identifying meaningful and interesting characteristics to use in comparison tasks.

3. Students should understand that the purpose of doing a comparison task is to extend and refine knowledge. A question such as “What did you discover?” helps to reinforce this understanding.

1. Football Baseball Chess Golf

Chances of players suffering from serious injuryAverage annual compensation

Percentage of women playing competitivelyAverage number of years players can compete

2. Football Baseball Chess Golf

Size of crowds attending events

Chances of players appearing on a Weet-Bix boxNumbers of people watching or listening via the mediaChances of high school players winning a scholarship

BLOOM’S REVISED TAXONOMY

CreatingGenerating new ideas, products, or ways of viewing things

Designing, constructing, planning, producing, inventing. 

EvaluatingJustifying a decision or course of action

Checking, hypothesising, critiquing, experimenting, judging 

 AnalysingBreaking information into parts to explore understandings and relationships

Comparing, organising, deconstructing, interrogating, finding 

ApplyingUsing information in another familiar situationImplementing, carrying out, using, executing

 Understanding

Explaining ideas or conceptsInterpreting, summarising, paraphrasing, classifying, explaining

 Remembering

Recalling informationRecognising, listing, describing, retrieving, naming, finding

 

ClassifyingThe process of grouping things into

definable categories on the basis of their attributes

1. Identify the items you want to classify.2. Select what seems to be an important item, describe

its key attributes and identify other items that have the same attributes.

3. Create the category by specifying the attribute(s) that the items must have for membership in the category.

4. Select another item, describe its key attributes and identify other items that have the same attributes.

5. Create this second category by specifying the attribute(s) that the items must have for membership in the category.

6. Repeat the previous two steps until all items are classified and the specific attributes have been identified for membership in each category.

7. If necessary, combine categories or split them into smaller categories and specify the attribute(s) that determine membership in the category.

ClassifyingThe process of grouping things that are alike into

categories

1. What do I want to classify?2. What things are alike and could be put

into a group?3. How are these things alike?4. What other groups can I make and how

are the things alike in each group?5. Does everything now fit into a group?6. Would it be better to split up any of the

groups or put any groups together?

Graphic Organisers for Classifying

Categories

Exercise: Life and DeathWould you classify the following as living, dead or ? Explain

Living Dead ?1. Mummies2. Fossils3. Lightning4. Bacteria5. Seaweed6. The Loch Ness Monster7. Thoughts8. Coral Reefs9. Petrified wood10. Ghosts11. Active Volcanoes12. The sun13. Fingernails14. Pearls15. Blood

Geography TermsBasinBayCanalCanyonCapeChannelContinentDeltaDivideFall lineFjordFoothillGlacierGulf

HarborHighlandHillIsthmusLowlandMarshMesaMountainRangeMouth (of a river)PeakPeninsulaPlain

PlateauPortPrairieRain forestReservoirSource (of a river)StraitStreamSwampTributaryTundraValleyVolcano

Key Points: Classifying1. Categories should be related to one another or

parallel.2. It is important to focus on attributes that are

important and meaningful to the content.3. Students must understand the defining

characteristics of the categories well enough to justify placement of the items - which gets more difficult with complex content.

4. Having students classify and then reclassify is a key to helping them notice unique distinctions and connections that they might not have noticed had they classified the items only once.

References

www.mcrel.org (accessed 10 August 2003)

Frangenheim, E. (2002). Reflections on classroom teaching, 4th ed. Loganholme, Qld: Rodin Educational Planning.

Langrehr, J. (2003). Thinking Lessons: Critical and Creative Thinking for the Middle Years. Ballarat, Vic: Wizard Books.

Marzano, Robert J., Pickering, Debra J., et al.,  (1997).  Dimensions of Learning Teacher's Manual, 2nd ed. Aurora, Colorado: McREL.

Marzano, Robert J., Pickering, Debra J., et al.,  (1997).  Dimensions of Learning Trainer's Manual, 2nd ed. Aurora, Colorado: McREL.