Psychology · Applies at any scale, from a single activity's debrief to a multi-module programme.

SOLO Taxonomy (Biggs & Collis)

The SOLO (Structure of the Observed Learning Outcome) Taxonomy describes five levels of increasing structural complexity in a learner's understanding, from missing the point to generalising to new domains. It classifies the quality of what learners produce rather than the type of thinking, which makes it practical for writing outcomes and judging responses.

When to use SOLO Taxonomy (Biggs & Collis)

When defining outcomes for a programme or session, or when designing assessment rubrics and debrief questions that should push for deeper understanding.

How SOLO Taxonomy (Biggs & Collis) works

Write session outcomes with SOLO verbs at the level you aim for, then design activities and debrief questions that move participants from listing aspects (multistructural) to relating and generalising them.

Phases of SOLO Taxonomy (Biggs & Collis)

  1. Prestructural: The learner misses the point or responds with irrelevant information. In a session this shows up as confusion about what the question even asks.
  2. Unistructural: The learner handles one relevant aspect. Activities at this level: name, identify, follow a simple procedure.
  3. Multistructural: The learner handles several relevant aspects but treats them separately. Activities: list, describe, combine, classify.
  4. Relational: The learner integrates the aspects into a coherent whole. Activities: compare, explain causes, relate, apply to a case.
  5. Extended abstract: The learner generalises beyond the case to new situations or principles. Activities: theorise, hypothesise, create, reflect on transfer.

Key principles

  • Understanding grows in structural complexity
  • Judge the outcome, not the task
  • Quantitative then qualitative growth
  • Constructive alignment of outcomes, activities and assessment

Best for

  • Writing learning outcomes
  • Designing rubrics and feedback
  • Debrief and reflection questions
  • Higher education and professional learning

Considerations

  • Classifies responses to a task; it says little about attitudes or motivation.
  • Borderline responses can be hard to classify consistently between assessors.
  • Novices may need a lot of unistructural and multistructural work before relational tasks help (expertise reversal).

Attribution & sources

Developed by John B. Biggs and Kevin F. Collis, 1982

Primary source

Design a session with SOLO Taxonomy (Biggs & Collis)

METODIC builds a complete SOLO Taxonomy (Biggs & Collis)-based session — methods, timing, worksheets, and facilitator guides — in minutes.

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