Videos and photos of Bich Son Primary School, Hanoi Taken on 17 Dec 2015

1. SOLO Taxonomy:
Enhancing Students’
Questioning and
Thinking
John Yeo
Singapore

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

5. Questioning allows
students take charge
of their own learning

6. Posing questions allow students to
communicate their thinking
Questioning helps students to reason
better

7. Teach students to trust
in their knowledge and
views
Tell them their
contributions matters

8. Develop habit of posing problems
to relate their thoughts to everyday

9. But ….. some
students get stuck
with asking same
type of questions

10. Asking Questions
Inquire
(to broaden thinking)
Probe
(to focus thinking)
THINKING

11. Bloom’s Taxonomy

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

13. Five Levels of Understanding
Lower Levels Higher Levels

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

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?

19. “Where is the Pen?”

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

22. Mathematics: Adding up to 6

23. Mathematics: Adding up to 6

24. Mathematics: Adding up to 6

25. Mathematics: Adding up to 6

27. Song “I Can Do Anything”

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.

30. Teacher’s role to provide more
feedback and challenge students

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

33. “What do you think this story is
about?”

34. “What do you think will happen next?”

35. Wonderment Questions
• It would be great if ….
• What might be all the ways …
• How might we ….
• What if….

36. Asking Questions
Inquire
(to broaden thinking - Relational
& Extended Abstract levels)
Probe
(to focus thinking- Uni-structural
& Multi-structural levels)
THINKING

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

38. THANK YOU