An Evaluation of the Implementation of The Dimensions of Learning Program in an Australian Independent Boys School

In order to test the effectiveness of the implementation of the Dimensions of Learning Program in an Australian independent boys school, data from the Australian Schools Science Competition over a number of years from this school were analysed. Subjects were secondary school students from the school over a period from 1994 until 1998 from Grades 8 to 12. The data were Rasch scaled and this allowed the student performance scores for each of the grade levels over the five calendar years of data to be put on one scale. It was thus possible to track the growth of the individual students and the cohorts of students over their time at school. Multi-level analysis using hierarchical linear modelling was employed to test the effects of the hypothesised variables. These variables included grade level, involvement in the Dimensions of Learning Program and IQ. It was found that, in its early stages of implementation, the Dimensions of Learning Program has had a measurable positive effect equivalent to approximately 40 per cent of one year’s growth. This result was significant at the 5 per cent level on a one-tailed test. In addition, the Dimensions of Learning Program interacted positively with student IQ, indicating that more able students would appear to profit more from the introduction of the program. This result was also significant at the 5 per cent level. Since the implementation of the Dimensions of Learning Program is a gradual process, these results provide practical evidence of its worth and suggest that as the program becomes more established in a school, further improvements might be evident.