Solo+Taxonomy

media type="custom" key="3820655" **What is SOLO?** SOLO is a true hierarchic taxonomy – increasing in quantity and quality of thought
 * SOLO identifies five stages of understanding. Each stage embraces the previous level but adds something more.
 * SOLO is a powerful tool in differentiating curriculum and providing cognitive challenge for learners
 * SOLO allows teachers and learners to ask deeper questions without creating new ones
 * Solo is a powerful metacognitive tool

**Why use SOLO?** 
 * Unistructural and multistructural questions test students’ surface thinking (lower-order thinking skills)
 * Relational and extended abstract questions test deep thinking (higher-order thinking skills)
 *  Use of **SOLO** allows us to balance the cognitive demand of the questions we ask and to scaffold students into deeper thinking and metacognition

Solo Taxonomy
(Condensed from a transcript by Mike Whiteman: Waitomo ICT Cluster ) **SOLO** stands for **Structure of the Observed Learning Outcomes** and was developed **by John Biggs and Kevin Collis**. In simple terms, the taxonomy presents a systematic way to describe how learner performance grows in complexity when mastering tasks. It defines levels of increasing complexity in a learners understanding of an idea. Learners may not exhibit all stages. Biggs describes it as **//“a framework for understanding understanding.”//** It seeks to provide a way to identify connections that learners make, with each level adding more. Helping learners to look at their own work in relation to this taxonomy can help in two ways: * an assessment framework independent of ‘content knowledge’ * a model to help show how a piece of work can be improved. **If you are using rubrics and/or success criteria, then use of the SOLO Taxonomy may provide better understanding of ideas than the listing of specific knowledge.**
 * 1) Pre - Structural the point hasn’t been understood.
 * 2) Uni - Structural one aspect of a task is picked up and used maybe a simple, obvious connection.
 * 3) Multi - Structural several aspects of a tasked picked up and used, but not linked aspects, they are treated independently..
 * 4) Relational integration of ideas/aspects of the task.
 * 5) Extended Abstract connections are made not only within a topic, but beyond.

**Resource Links**
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There has been a lot of discussion in the cluster about Solo Taxonomy and its use in planning and assessment. Here Waikowhai Primary School students discuss **SOLO Taxonomy** and HOT visual mapping as a framework for questioning in student inquiry. media type="youtube" key="N63TXAHDgkE" height="344" width="425"

Waikowhai Primary School students reflect on how their understanding about "learning" has changed since they were introduced to **SOLO Taxonomy media type="youtube" key="xG3MXXQz95M" height="344" width="425"**