LEARN NC

K–12 teaching and learning · from the UNC School of Education

Classroom » Reference

Dimensions of Learning model

Learn more about Dimensions of Learning model

North Carolina Thinking Skills: An introduction
There are five dimensions in the model of thinking skills used to classify questions for the state's assessment tests.
Format: article
By Tom Munk.
Investigating surface area
This is a hands on lesson best used to introduce geometry students to 3-dimensional figures. Students will have the opportunity to draw 3-dimensionally and create collapsible figures which can be used to develop the standard surface area formulas.
Format: lesson plan (grade 7 Mathematics)
By Jennifer Bronzini.
Does your house measure up?
This lesson is intended to be used as a final assessment of a student's understanding of an inch, foot, and yard. It will also assess their ability to use a yardstick, follow written directions, and work with a partner to draw a house on the school blacktop as part of a class neighborhood.
Format: lesson plan (grade 2 Mathematics)
By Cathy Searcey.
Perimeter and area around the North Carolina zoo
Students learn about perimeter, area and scale drawings of various geometric shapes. As they learn they apply their knowledge to different animal enclosures at the North Carolina Zoo. To gather information about design of animal enclosures the classes visit the zoo. The students then compile all they learned by creating a scaled drawing and model of an human habitation exhibit for a zoo.
Format: lesson plan (grade 6 Mathematics)
By Susan Hoercher.

Model of learning developed by Marzano et al (1988) that links content area knowledge, metacognition, and critical and creative thinking with a taxonomy of thinking skills and thinking processes.

See also North Carolina thinking skills.

Additional information

The Dimensions of Learning model is the basis of the North Carolina thinking skills used by NCDPI.

This model also includes a hierarchy of thinking skills similar to Bloom’s Taxonomy: focusing, information gathering, remembering, organizing, analyzing, generating, integrating, and evaluating. See this chart for a comparison of various models of thinking skills.

Examples and resources

See LEARN NC’s article, North Carolina Thinking Skills: An introduction, for an explanation of the five dimensions in the model of thinking skills that are used to classify questions for the North Carolina’s assessment tests.