SOLO Taxonomy is a powerful model for learning. It supports students to shift their level of understanding from surface to deep to conceptual.
Explore our secondary school resources to bring this reliable and robust model to your classroom. You will find SOLO Taxonomy symbols, graphic organisers, templates and writing frames for academic language (verbs and connectives) and hexagonal thinking. The SOLO rubrics make student learning visible, encouraging feedback and student agency.
Additionally, SOLO Taxonomy can be applied across curriculum areas, from physical education to mathematics.
Design learning experiences that support students to become critical thinkers and allow you to see the impact of your teaching.
There are five levels in SOLO Taxonomy.
As described by Pam Hook in her resource, First Steps with SOLO Taxonomy, the five stages of SOLO Taxonomy are:
The SOLO Taxonomy levels represent two changes in learning outcomes.
Firstly, a quantitative increase in understanding, in other words, knowing more. This is seen when students move from unistructural to multistructural.
Then, a qualitative change in understanding. For example, a deepening of understanding is seen when progressing from multistructural to relational to extended abstract.
The examples of SOLO Taxonomy verbs are associated with the levels of understanding. Pam Hook says in her resource, SOLO Taxonomy: A Guide for Schools:
“Associating the levels in SOLO with “declarative knowledge verbs” in the process of “constructive alignment” is fundamental to building clarity, competence and confidence into the process of writing learning intentions.”
Examples of verbs for the SOLO levels can be seen below:
SOLO Taxonomy is different to Bloom’s Taxonomy in that it can be taught to students, whereas Bloom’s tends to be used more by teachers. In this way, SOLO encourages students to delve deeper when answering questions.
Professor John Hattie explains the other differences between Bloom’s Taxonomy and SOLO Taxonomy: