Adopting dimensions of learning : a partnership between Kenilworth State Community College and Central Queensland University

In 2004, Kenilworth State Community College and Central Queensland University Noosa, undertook a pilot project in which Dimensions of Learning was introduced as the school’s pedagogical framework. The university provided the school’s staff with professional development and critical feedback in planning and delivery of the curriculum using the Dimensions of Learning framework. The college offered the setting to see how practising teachers in Queensland would respond to implementing Dimensions of Learning in classrooms. Both partners in the project had a set of clear outcomes related to professional learning they wished to achieve. For the Principal of the school, these outcomes related to improving pedagogical practices by focusing professional learning on what research indicated makes a difference for student learning (Darling-Hammond, 2000, Newmann & Associates, 1996; Marzano, Pickering & Pollock, 2001). The university was preparing to embed Dimensions of Learning in its pre-service teacher education program, the Bachelor of Learning Management (BLM) (Lynch & Smith, 2005; Smith, Lynch & Mienczakowski, 2003). The practical application of the framework would potentially offer important understandings that would support both BLM students, and the practising teachers who would mentor them in their school placements. This chapter outlines the project and starts by explaining the rationale for the partnership before detailing the strategic planning processes that defined the direction of the pilot. In the final section some of the important understandings developed from the project are explored, in particular how these were used to underpin an expanded project supporting both practising teachers, and BLM students in subsequent years.