WHAT IS THE SOLO TAXONOMY?

SOLO (Structure of Observed Learning Outcomes) offers a structured outline for the learners to use to build their
learning and thinking. It motivates students to ponder where they are presently in terms of their level of
understanding, and what they must do to progress.

SOLO Taxonomy was developed by John Biggs and Kevin Collis, two educational researchers who were interested in
creating a framework that could help teachers design more effective learning experiences. The framework is based on
the idea that there are different levels of understanding, and that students can move through these levels by engaging
with increasingly complex tasks and ideas. By using SOLO Taxonomy, teachers can create learning experiences that are
tailored to each student's current level of understanding, and that help them progress towards more sophisticated levels
of knowledge.

LEARNING IS 'LEARNABLE'
For children to excel in the classroom and life beyond school, they need to develop a particular academic skill set. The
Learning Skills Framework outlines what these learning behaviors are and what they look like in practice. They can be
regarded as both a mechanism and outcome of a successful education.

SOLO Taxonomy is often used in conjunction with the concept of constructive alignment, which is the idea that learning
outcomes, teaching activities, and assessment tasks should all be aligned with one another. By aligning these three
elements, teachers can ensure that their students are learning in a way that is both meaningful and effective.

WHAT IS EPISTEMOLOGY?
Epistemology, the theory of knowledge, is a cornerstone of philosophical inquiry, probing the nature, origin, and limitations
of knowledge. It delves into the intricate relationship between the mind and reality, exploring how we acquire, justify, and
understand our beliefs about the world around us.

This branch of philosophy contrasts with others such as metaphysics (the study of reality), ethics (the study of morality),
aesthetics (the study of beauty), and logic (the study of valid reasoning).

With SOLO Taxonomy, teachers can design learning experiences that are aligned with the specific level of understanding
that each student has already achieved, and that help them progress towards more advanced levels of understanding.
This approach allows students to build on their existing knowledge and skills, and to develop a deeper understanding of
the subject matter over time.

SOLO TAXONOMY FOR ENHANCING STUDENT LEARNING

Solo Taxonomy is a systematic way that describes how learners' understanding build from easy to difficult while learning
different tasks or subjects. The Solo Taxonomy can be used to enhance the quality of learning within the classroom
teaching and provide a systematic way of developing deep understanding (Damopolii, 2020). Student learning can be
guided in ways that promote deep learning.

SOLO Taxonomy is a valuable tool for assessing the depth of knowledge that students have achieved in a particular
subject or task. It allows teachers to identify where students are in their learning journey and determine what steps need
to be taken to move them to a deeper level of understanding.
By using SOLO Taxonomy, teachers can design learning experiences that are appropriate for each student's level of
understanding and encourage them to move towards deeper levels of knowledge. This can lead to a more effective and
engaging learning experience for students, and ultimately, better academic performance.

WHAT ARE THE SOLO LEVELS?

The Structure of Observed Learning Outcome, presents a compelling way to structure the complexity and quality of
students' thinking into distinct levels. It's a versatile tool that allows educators to gauge attainment levels and foster quality
learning. This taxonomy consists of five levels, each representing a different depth of knowledge and ability level.

1. Prestructural Level: Here, students exhibit a lack of understanding, often missing the point entirely. The level of
thinking is minimal, with a focus more on lower-order verbs such as identify, memorize, and recall. It's the first
stepping stone, a difficulty level that needs overcoming before progressing.
2. Unistructural Level: At this stage, students can identify singular aspects of knowledge, and their understanding
is limited to isolated disciplinary knowledge. For instance, a student might identify that water boils at 100 degrees
Celsius but may not understand why this happens.
3. Multistructural Level: The quantity of knowledge increases at this level. Students begin to gather multiple pieces
of information, but they struggle to relate them coherently. For example, a student in this stage might know the
boiling point of water and that heat energy is involved, yet fail to link these facts.
4. Relational Level: This is where the magic of student-led learning starts to manifest. Students begin to connect
the multistructural elements into a coherent whole. Their level of thinking becomes more complex, and they start
to understand the relationships between facts. For instance, a student at this level would understand that water
boils at 100 degrees Celsius due to the increased kinetic energy of water molecules.
5. Extended Abstract Level: The zenith of the SOLO taxonomy. Here, students not only connect facts but
extrapolate and hypothesize beyond the given context. The attainment level is high, and students exhibit the
ability to apply their coherent knowledge to new, abstract scenarios. For example, a student at this stage might
predict the behavior of other fluids based on their understanding of water's boiling point.
A research survey of 500 high school science teachers revealed that less than 20% were aware of the SOLO taxonomy,
indicating the untapped potential this model holds for shaping pedagogy. By incorporating the SOLO taxonomy into
teaching, educators can gradually raise students' level of thinking from unistructural to the abstract level, thereby
encouraging deeper, more conceptual understandings. It's a robust approach to foster students' transition from just
acquiring facts to connecting and applying these facts creatively and thoughtfully.

Comparing SOLO Taxonomy to Bloom's Taxonomy

Understanding the paradigms of SOLO Taxonomy and Bloom's Taxonomy can enrich teaching methods and learning
programs. Both taxonomies serve as frameworks for constructing learning objectives, but they differ fundamentally in their
structure and focus.
Biggs & Collis and Biggs & Tang, the architects of the SOLO Taxonomy, designed it as a measure of the quality of
learning, while Bloom's Taxonomy was developed as a hierarchy of learning objectives.
SOLO taxonomy elucidates the learner's depth of understanding, from the basic concept to the broader concept. It is more
learner-focused and aims to measure the learner's quality of understanding along a continuum: from pre-structural,
unistructural, multistructural, to relational and extended abstract levels.

Here, the focus is on the learner's progression in understanding classroom concepts and their ability to connect them. A
well-structured assessment question in the SOLO taxonomy can enable students to demonstrate their understanding at
the conceptual level.
On the other hand, Bloom's Taxonomy is more content-oriented, focusing on the definition of science and the classification
of learning objectives within the cognitive domain. It provides a framework for the understanding of science from lower-
order cognitive skills (knowledge, comprehension, and application) to higher-order skills (analysis, synthesis, and
evaluation).
However, it falls short of assessing whether students can integrate and extend their knowledge in the same way the SOLO
taxonomy does.

As BIGGS AND TANG put it, "The SOLO taxonomy not only suggests an item writing methodology, but the same
taxonomy can be used to score the items." This points to the versatility of the SOLO model in both constructing and
evaluating connected questions, a feature less prominent in Bloom's taxonomy.
In essence, both taxonomies offer valuable insights, but their application depends on the educational context and the
desired learning outcomes. For a more holistic understanding of student learning, educators might consider integrating
the strengths of both taxonomies in their pedagogical approach.
1. The Bloom's taxonomy implies that there is an essential relationship between the questions asked and
their responses; whereas, both the question and answer can have a different level in SOLO taxonomy.
2. Bloom's Taxonomy differentiates 'knowledge' from the intellectual processes or abilities that function on this
'knowledge' whereas the SOLO taxonomy is at its core based upon the processes of understanding used by
the learners when responding to the prompts. Hence, knowledge pervades across each level of the SOLO
taxonomy.
3. Bloom argues that his taxonomy does not only relate complexity but also relates a sequence of difficulty;
whereas, there is no such requirement of increasing difficulty in case of the SOLO method.
4. Bloom’s taxonomy does not accompany criteria for guessing the results of any activity; whereas, SOLO
taxonomy is precisely useful for guessing the outcomes (Crompton, 2019).
5. Both taxonomies along with the Universal Thinking Framework, enable children to talk about their learning more
effectively.
Teachers can use:

1. No Idea - (like the pre-structural level)

2. One Idea - (like uni-structural level)
3. Many Ideas - (like multi-structural level)
4. Relate - (like relational level)
5. Extend - (like extended abstract)

SOLO TAXONOMY FOR ASSESSMENT

By using SOLO Taxonomy, teachers can help students progress from surface learning to deep learning, and ultimately
to the highest level of cognitive processing, which is extended abstract thinking. This approach not only helps students
develop a deeper understanding of the subject matter, but also prepares them for real-world problem solving and critical
thinking.
SOLO TAXONOMY IS USEFUL BECAUSE:

1. It helps learners to reflect meaningfully on what the next levels in their learning are.
2. It helps instructors to thoughtfully design learning experiences and learning intentions.
3. It is used by the teachers and students together.
4. It makes it convenient to identify and implement effective success criteria.
5. It offers feedforward and feedback for the learning outcomes.
6. Students understand the reasons for everything they do and realize improvements are due to their own
strategies
7. It shows the difference between deep and surface understanding, helping learners understand where they are
on that spectrum, and what they must do to progress.

CLASSROOM EXAMPLES OF SOLO TAXONOMY

As we have seen, the SOLO taxonomy is a powerful tool that teachers can use to design learning activities that
progressively deepen a student's understanding of a subject. Here are eight fictional examples of how SOLO taxonomy
can be applied across various subjects in primary education:

1. Mathematics: In a lesson on fractions, a teacher could start with the unistructural level by asking students to
identify fractions in a group of shapes. Moving to the multistructural level, students could be asked to compare
and order different fractions. At the relational level, students could be tasked with finding equivalent fractions,
and finally, at the extended abstract level, students could apply their understanding of fractions to solve real-
world problems, such as dividing a pizza or a bar of chocolate into equal parts.

2. English: In a lesson on narrative writing, students at the unistructural level could identify key elements of a
story (characters, setting, plot). At the multistructural level, they could describe these elements in detail. At the
relational level, they could analyze how these elements interact to create a cohesive story. Finally, at the
extended abstract level, students could create their own original narrative incorporating these elements.

3. Geography: In a lesson on climate zones, students could start at the unistructural level by identifying different
climate zones. At the multistructural level, they could describe the characteristics of each zone. At the relational
level, they could compare and contrast different zones. At the extended abstract level, they could discuss the
impact of these climate zones on human life and culture.

4. History: In a lesson on the Roman Empire, students at the unistructural level could identify key events or
figures. At the multistructural level, they could describe these events or figures in detail. At the relational level,
they could explain the cause and effect relationships between these events. At the extended abstract level, they
could evaluate the impact of the Roman Empire on modern society.

5. Science: In a lesson on the water cycle, students at the unistructural level could identify different stages of the
water cycle. At the multistructural level, they could describe these stages in detail. At the relational level, they
could explain how these stages are interconnected. At the extended abstract level, they could discuss the
importance of the water cycle for life on Earth.

6. Art: In a lesson on color theory, students at the unistructural level could identify primary colors. At the
multistructural level, they could mix primary colors to create secondary colors. At the relational level, they could
create a color wheel showing the relationship between primary, secondary, and tertiary colors. At the extended
abstract level, they could create an original artwork using complementary colors to evoke specific emotions.
7. Physical Education: In a lesson on basketball, students at the unistructural level could learn to dribble the ball.
At the multistructural level, they could learn to pass and shoot. At the relational level, they could play a game,
applying these skills in a dynamic environment. At the extended abstract level, they could reflect on their
performance and devise strategies for improvement.

8. Music: In a lesson on rhythm, students at the unistructural level could clap a simple beat. At the multistructural
level, they could clap a complex rhythm. At the relational level, they could perform a rhythm in a group, listening
to and synchronizing with others. At the extended abstract level, they could compose their own rhythm and
perform it for the class.

Solo taxonomy in PE