SOLO taxonomy
Five steps of how deep an understanding goes, from missing the point to linking ideas and taking them further.
The five levels, in a quiz about the water cycle
Prestructural
Hasn't grasped it yet, so the answer misses the point. A quiz doesn't ask at this level, but a wrong answer can show it.
Unistructural
One relevant idea is enough to answer.
- name
- identify
- find
ExampleWhat falls from a cloud when its drops get heavy?
Multistructural
It takes several ideas, but each on its own.
- list
- describe
- combine
ExampleWhich of these lists has all the steps of the water cycle?
Relational
The ideas are linked into a whole: how and why they fit together.
- explain why
- compare
- relate
ExampleWhy do more clouds form over the sea on a hot day?
Extended abstract
The whole is taken further: to a new case, a rule or a prediction.
- predict
- generalise
- theorise
ExampleIf the Earth gets warmer, what will most likely happen to rain?
Bloom or SOLO?
Bloom
Says what kind of thinking a question asks for: remembering, applying, judging.
SOLO
Says how much of the subject an answer pulls together: one idea, several, linked or taken further.
Bloom + SOLO
Bloom + SOLO gives each kind of thinking a depth, e.g. Apply at Relational.
Use it in your quiz
Under More settings, choose SOLO at Number of questions, and give each level as many questions as you like, 20 at most. Tjaz writes them in that order.
Make a quizJohn Biggs and Kevin Collis described SOLO, the Structure of the Observed Learning Outcome, in 1982, from how pupils' answers grow as they learn.