The Dimensions Framework includes four dimensions and four levels of understanding

The Understanding framework highlights four dimensions of understanding: knowledge, methods, purposes, and  forms. Within each dimension the framework describes four levels of understanding: naive, novice, apprentice, and master.

Knowledge is the “what” of the topic. It includes both facts/information/concepts and relations among them. If someone understands a topic better, they conceive of it more systematically and with a richer array of facts/information and connections among them.

Methods is the “how” of understanding. Not the “how” of TEACHING ABOUT the topic - it’s NOT pedagogical methods. It is how disciplinarians act upon knowledge in their discipline. It’s disciplinary processes. It’s what the experts do to build understanding and check on the quality of information.

Purposes is the “why” of understanding, the reasons why the topics matter. It’s the dimension students most long for - evidenced in their plaintive pleas of “Why do we have to do this ?” If we take purposes seriously, students will come to understand why studying the topic matters - to them, to experts, to others - and how information and processes of this sort have or might be used.

Forms are the “expressions” of understanding: the evidence, the works, the products. They are how experts in the discipline communicate their thinking to each other - what genres they use, what symbol systems, and how those change depending on audience.

(From Ⓒ2009 adaptation by Mary McFarland of work in 2000 by Lois Hetland and the President and Fellows of Harvard College)