An Introduction to SOLO Taxonomy: Part Two

Michael Boomer —

Last week we introduced the five levels and symbols of SOLO Taxonomy as a teaching and learning tool. We also looked at the PRESTRUCTURAL level, where we may not know much, as a natural part of the learning process.

PRE-STRUCTURAL= when a student first starts a new topic, they may know nothing, or have no skills. — Image by: Amiee Griffiths
UNI-STRUCTURAL= a student knows one thing or can perform one skill. — Image by: Amiee Griffiths

MULTI-STRUCTURAL= a student knows several things about their topic or can perform several disconnected skills. — Image by: Amiee Griffiths

RELATIONAL= a student starts to show awareness of the connections between pieces of knowledge or can perform a sequence of skills. — Image by: Amiee Griffiths

EXTENDED ABSTRACT= a student can see deeper connections or the implications of those relationships to understand it from a new perspective or can perform a sequence of skills under different conditions or adapt their technique. — Image by: Amiee Griffiths

THIS WEEK

Over the next four weeks, I will give more detail about each stage of SOLO Taxonomy and how students, teachers and parents can use it to help your child with homework, or assignments, or just encouraging them in the progress they are making. Today, we will cover the UNI-STRUCTURAL stage.

UNI-STRUCTURAL

To move from the PRE-STRUCTURAL stage of learning we need to accumulate some knowledge or skill. The moment we acquire a piece of knowledge or can perform some part of a skill set, we have advanced to the UNI-STRUCTURAL stage. This simply means that now I have ONE idea, or ONE piece of knowledge, or ONE skill. At this stage it is now about collecting more, more ideas, more knowledge, or more skills. AT each stage of SOLO Taxonomy, there are particular ACADEMIC VERBS that can help you identify if you are in this stage. If your child can DEFINE, NAME, IDENTIFY, LABEL, DRAW, FIND or MATCH pieces of knowledge or parts of their skill, then they are most likely at the UNI-STRUCTURAL stage. They may have an idea but their understanding is limited and disconnected from other pieces of knowledge or skills.