2. SOLO Taxonomy: Enhancing Students’
Questioning and Thinking
• Lessons from Bich Son Primary School (17/12/15)
• What is SOLO Taxonomy
• Five levels of SOLO Taxonomy & students’ questioning
• Thinking together, deeply
12. SOLO Taxonomy
• SOLO = Structure of the Observed Learning
Outcomes
• Describes levels of increasing complexity in
student's understanding of subjects (Biggs &
Collis, 1982)
• Can be used to assess students’ intellectual
characteristics and the content and quality of
the problems they formulate
14. Lower vs Higher Levels
Lower Levels Higher Levels
Tends to have only one
“correct” answer
Invite a range of responses and
make progressive demands on
student thinking
Ask students to recall facts or
to demonstrate simple
comprehension
Encourage students to think
beyond the isolated facts to
authentic and relevant uses of
concepts
Typical of surface learning Indicative of a deep approach
*Need to balance both lower and higher order
15.
16. Five Levels of Understanding
Pre-structural
Irrelevant or incorrect information.
Student does not have sufficient
understanding of knowledge.
“Why did Goldilocks’ stepmother tried
to kill her?”
17. Five Levels of Understanding
Uni-structural
Student's response only focuses on
one correct and relevant aspect
“Whose house did Goldilocks go
into?”
18. Five Levels of Understanding
Uni-structural
Basic knowledge or textbook
information
Tends to be factual and procedural
questions
Verifying with – Who?
What?When? Where? Why?
How?
20. Five Levels of Understanding
Multi-structural
Student's response focuses on
several relevant aspects but they
are treated independently
“What are three aspects about
the way the bears live that tell us
that the story is not a real life
situation?”
21. Five Levels of Understanding
Multi-structural
Listing of items
Give examples
Elaboration
Teacher can encourage
students to offer more
responses
28. Five Levels of Understanding
Relational
The different aspects have become
integrated into a coherent whole. Shows
adequate understanding of the topic.
“Goldilocks eats the baby bear’s food,
breaks his chair, and sleeps in his bed.
What does this tell us about the kind of
person she is?”
29. Five Levels of Understanding
Relational
Needs to see meaningful
relationships
Teacher needs to help students
form an overview to help students
see the relationship/ link.
Teacher can provide a list of
alternatives to guide students’
thinking.
31. Five Levels of Understanding
Extended Abstract
Previous ideas now
conceptualised at a higher level of
abstraction and generalised to a
new topic or area.
“Why do nursery tales allow wild
animals to act in human fashion?”
32. Five Levels of Understanding
Extended Abstract
Tends to be open questions
with different responses
Teacher can provide a list of
possible answers
Teacher can teach how to
transfer understanding to new
tasks and situations
37. Asking Higher Order Questions
• Higher order questions tend to offer more choices
or variety of solutions
• Thinking takes time especially with more complex
questions
• Need to consolidate answers or solutions
individually
• To challenge students’ prior knowledge, ask “What
other questions can you ask?” and get them to
write it down in a notebook/ journal
type of thinking or processing required in completing tasks or answering questions; that is, know, comprehend, apply, analyse,
Open Questions
As you think about the state of Thailand, why do you think its founders chose to locate the state capital in BKK?
Using the number of males and females in our class, how many ratios can you write?
What rules about physical changes can we come up with to help us determine if something has melted or dissolved?
(i.e., bears don’t live in houses, sleep in beds, eat cooked food, bears don’t talk, etc.)
From Multistr to Relational: This involves more than “getting to know more about a topic or being adept at
following through a sequence of procedures; it includes understanding or
integrating what is known into a coherent system wherein the parts are inter-related.
This interrelationship comes about as a result of an ability to form an over viewing
principle which can be derived from the information given”