SOLO Taxonomy
What is SOLO Taxonomy?
SOLO is a model or taxonomy of learning.
The SOLO model classifies students’ learning outcomes from any activity, lesson or unit of work. Teachers and students can use it to easily sort learning outcomes into surface, deep and conceptual knowledge.
Who developed SOLO?
Biggs and Collis (Australian academics) developed SOLO in the early 80's after researching samples of students’ thinking in many different subjects, across many different levels. The work of Biggs and Collis (and the continued work of Hook) has been identified by Hattie as “most valuable both in developing models of teaching and learning and also in our assessment of understanding."
What are the five SOLO levels of understanding?
Prestructural
Unistructural
Multi-Structural
Relational
Extended Abstract
What does SOLO do?
The SOLO model describes the structure of learning outcomes. In this way, it makes clear to students and teachers alike what the learning outcomes of an activity, lesson or unit are.
In the SOLO model, a student’s learning outcome may be understanding at any one of the five levels of complexity: no idea, one idea, loose ideas, connected ideas, extended ideas.
The model works well with both declarative knowledge (what students know) and functioning knowledge (what students can do) outcomes.
Teachers can use SOLO to design differentiated learning tasks and to create differentiated success criteria. They can use it to:
Pam Hook has found that using SOLO in the classroom is a powerful approach because it helps students see that their learning outcomes are due to their efforts and strategies rather than luck of fixed ability.
SOLO supports students in developing metacognition, self-regulation, self-efficacy, engagement and resilience when learning. "When students can move from idea to ideas and then relate and elaborate on them we have learning - and when they can regulate or monitor this journey then they are teachers of their own learning." (Hattie, 2009)
Using SOLO, students and teachers can give and discuss feedback about:
SOLO is a simple model, moving from idea to ideas to relate to extend. By making the learning outcome clear, it improves students’ understanding of the purpose of everything they do.
SOLO is highly reliable in that teachers and students tend to agree on what SOLO level the students have achieved.
SOLO challenges students to think more deeply by giving them a framework for thinking about loose ideas, connected ideas and extended ideas.
The task and the outcome can be at different SOLO levels. This means that SOLO can easily differentiate learning tasks and learning outcomes for every student.
How do we use SOLO at BWPS?
SOLO is used to:
What does SOLO look like at BWPS?
SOLO is a model or taxonomy of learning.
The SOLO model classifies students’ learning outcomes from any activity, lesson or unit of work. Teachers and students can use it to easily sort learning outcomes into surface, deep and conceptual knowledge.
Who developed SOLO?
Biggs and Collis (Australian academics) developed SOLO in the early 80's after researching samples of students’ thinking in many different subjects, across many different levels. The work of Biggs and Collis (and the continued work of Hook) has been identified by Hattie as “most valuable both in developing models of teaching and learning and also in our assessment of understanding."
What are the five SOLO levels of understanding?
Prestructural
Unistructural
Multi-Structural
Relational
Extended Abstract
What does SOLO do?
The SOLO model describes the structure of learning outcomes. In this way, it makes clear to students and teachers alike what the learning outcomes of an activity, lesson or unit are.
In the SOLO model, a student’s learning outcome may be understanding at any one of the five levels of complexity: no idea, one idea, loose ideas, connected ideas, extended ideas.
The model works well with both declarative knowledge (what students know) and functioning knowledge (what students can do) outcomes.
Teachers can use SOLO to design differentiated learning tasks and to create differentiated success criteria. They can use it to:
- plan the level of learning required for a task
- assess the extent to which each student has reached that level
- make decisions on the next steps for learning
Pam Hook has found that using SOLO in the classroom is a powerful approach because it helps students see that their learning outcomes are due to their efforts and strategies rather than luck of fixed ability.
SOLO supports students in developing metacognition, self-regulation, self-efficacy, engagement and resilience when learning. "When students can move from idea to ideas and then relate and elaborate on them we have learning - and when they can regulate or monitor this journey then they are teachers of their own learning." (Hattie, 2009)
Using SOLO, students and teachers can give and discuss feedback about:
- What they are doing (level of the task / feed up)
- How well it is going (level of students’ achievement of the task / feedback)
- What students should do next (next steps for learning / feed forward)
SOLO is a simple model, moving from idea to ideas to relate to extend. By making the learning outcome clear, it improves students’ understanding of the purpose of everything they do.
SOLO is highly reliable in that teachers and students tend to agree on what SOLO level the students have achieved.
SOLO challenges students to think more deeply by giving them a framework for thinking about loose ideas, connected ideas and extended ideas.
The task and the outcome can be at different SOLO levels. This means that SOLO can easily differentiate learning tasks and learning outcomes for every student.
How do we use SOLO at BWPS?
SOLO is used to:
- Inform planning
- Gather students’ prior knowledge
- Write learning intentions that clearly show the cognitive complexity of the task
- Construct success criteria
- Assess and self-assess learning outcomes for declarative and functioning knowledge
- Provide feedback (feed up, feedback, feed forward)
What does SOLO look like at BWPS?
- SOLO symbols displayed
- Hexagons to model loose, connected and extended ideas
- SOLO maps (graphic organisers) aligned to SOLO levels
- SOLO coded learning intentions and success criteria
- SOLO-coded self-assessment rubrics
