Flying SOLO. Taxonomies of cognitive processing.

1. Flying SOLO.Taxonomies of cognitive processing. Earl Irving Team Day September, 2009

2. Overview • Ways of describing questioning & thinking --> cognitive taxonomies • Bloom et al • SOLO (Collis & Biggs) • Examples • Summary

3. The questions teachers ask. • 80% of teacher questions require low order thinking skills • Recall or remembering • Knowledge • Simple handling of a restricted set of ideas, data, knowledge • Goal is to ask more higher level questions – make ‘em think!!

4. Back to Questioning

5. Taxonomies of thinking • Need a way to classify categories of thinking (cognitive processing) in increasing degrees of complexity • Bloom et al (1956). Cognitive, affective and psychomotor • Has dominated approaches to assessment / questioning • Supposed to be hierarchical, but isn’t

6. Bloom’s Taxonomy (1956) • appraise, evaluate, justify • combine, rearrange, rewrite • critique, discriminate, relate • demonstrate, modify, solve • explain, infer, summarise • list, label, name, state

7. SOLO • Structure of Observed Learning Outcomes (Collis & Biggs, 1982) • Analysed structure of student responses to questions • Four (five) categories at two levels: • Surface: Unistructural, and Multistructural • Deep: Relational, and Extended Abstract

8. Elements of SOLO •  Student • R Response • X Irrelevant, not given • • Relevant, given • o Relevant, not given

9. Unistructural • Uses one given piece of information. • Student presents simple and obvious information • What was the name of that movie? • What year was the Treaty of Waitangi signed? • How many beans make five?

10. Sees a part of the house in isolation. Identifies a window, or the roof. • Cannot see connections or significance of the parts

11. Multistructural • Uses 2 or more facts, which are not necessarily related to each other • Name three characters in the movie. • Give 2 reasons why it is sensible to drive on the left.

12. Can see parts of the house separately, but no sense of the whole. • Disorganised collection of ideas around the issue

13. Relational • Uses 2 or more pieces of information, and makes connections among them • Sees the significance of the parts to the whole • Compare and contrast meiosis and mitosis • Explain the causes of …

14. Students able to appreciate the significance of parts in relation to the whole • Can put the whole house together • Work starts to move between the facts and theory

15. Extended abstract • Makes connections not only with the given subject material, but also beyond it • Why do fairy tales use animals to portray human characteristics? • Find a formula to describe the pattern –1, 1, 3, 5, …

16. Students make connections not just with the given subject area but beyond it; apply, generalise and transfer principles and ideas underlying the specific • Sees the community around the house

17. Another SOLO schema

18. Learning: deep and surface approaches

19. STOPPING BY WOODS ON A SNOWY EVENING by Robert Frost Whose woods these are I think I know.His house is in the village though;He will not see me stopping hereTo watch his woods fill up with snow.My little horse must think it queerTo stop without a farmhouse nearBetween the woods and frozen lakeThe darkest evening of the year.He gives his harness bells a shakeTo ask if there is some mistake.The only other sound’s a sweepOf easy wind and downy flake.The woods are lovely, dark and deep,But I have promises to keep,And miles to go before I sleep,And miles to go before I sleep.

20. Bloom Questions for Frost • Knowledge Where does the owner of the woods have his house? _____________________________________ • Comprehension Why do the horse’s bells shake? • The horse is shaking off the snow • The horse is shivering with the cold • The horse is ready to move on • The horse is being blown by the wind • Application Write a poem that uses the same rhyme scheme as stanza________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

21. Bloom Questions for Frost • Analysis Janet thinks the poem is set at Christmas time. Find two pieces of evidence in the poem she would use to support her argument. a) ________________________________________________ b) ________________________________________________ • Synthesis Frost suggests that people need to choose between responsibility and personal needs. What would happen to society if everyone chose only personal needs? ________________________________________________ ________________________________________________ ________________________________________________ • Evaluate Is this poem a classic? Support your opinion with reference to the quality of its message and style. ________________________________________________ ________________________________________________ ________________________________________________

22. SOLO Surface Questions for Frost • Unistructural Why does the horse shake the harness bells? _____________________________________________ • Multistructural What two phrases suggest that the poem could be set at Christmas? a) ___________________________________________ b) ___________________________________________

23. SOLO Deep Questions for Frost • Relational Why does the horse think it is unusual to stop by the woods? • It is the darkest evening of the year • The woods are filling up with snow • There is no sound other than the soft wind • There are no houses near the woods • Extended Abstract What is the main message of the poem? • Nature is especially beautiful in winter • People would like to avoid their responsibilities if they could • People and animals don’t like to be out in the dark and cold • Travelling at winter time is disturbing

24. Strategy for Writing Deeper Questions • Take a Unistructural Question and require a list of 3 things  Multistructural Question • Put the list of things into the question and ask what they have in common Relational Question • Decide what the individual relationship is representative of – what class of event, personality, situation, rule, etc. does this relationship in this context connect to? Generate list of possible wrong answers to go with correct answer to create M-C question that asks for the rule  Extended Abstract Question

25. Sample Deeper Questions: Goldilocks & Three Bears • Multi-structural List 3 aspects of the story that suggest that the story is not a real life situation. • Bears don’t live in houses • Bears don’t sleep in beds • Bears don’t eat cooked food • Relational What does the fact that the bears behave in a human-type fashion (e.g., they live in houses, eat cooked food, and sleep in beds) tell us about the kind of story Goldilocks is? • It’s a nursery tale • It’s a newspaper story • It’s a biography • It’s an encyclopaedia entry • Extended Abstract Why do nursery tales allow wild animals to act in human fashion? • humans anthropomorphise in order to reveal more about human nature in a psychologically safe way • to show the oneness of nature and humanity by having wild beasts behave like humans • to entertain children who easily believe that they can communicate with imaginary and wild creatures • to give children courage to face the mysteries and dangers of powerful nature and scary adult life

26. Mathematics example • How many sticks are needed for 3 houses? UNI • How many sticks are there for 5 houses? ______ MULTI • If 52 houses require 209 sticks, how many sticks do you need to be able to make 53 houses? ______ RELATIONAL • Make up a rule to count how many sticks are needed for any number of houses. EXTENDED ABSTRACT

27. Achievement Objective: Recognise & Use Factors in a Variety of Practical Settings UNISTRUCTURAL  Complete (x +2)(x+2) = x2 +4x + ___ MULTISTRUCTURAL  Factorise x2 + 2x – 8. RELATIONAL  The area of a rectangle in square centimetres is represented by the expression x2 + 2x – 8. The length of the rectangle is x + 4 centimetres. What is an expression for the width of the rectangle in centimetres? EXTENDED ABSTRACT  When the final term of a quadratic is a negative value, what is the pattern of operations within the two factors? (A) both addition (B) both subtraction C) addition & subtraction

28. Changing SOLO Levels: Technology (MES) • Achievement Objective: Basic Skills in Using Ordinary Hand Tools in Manufacturing.

29. Changing SOLO Levels: Technology (MES) • UNISTRUCTURAL Name Tool A. ____________ • MULTISTRUCTURAL Identify the primary function of Tools D and B. D _________ B __________ • RELATIONAL Explain how Tool C could be used in making a metal sink.________________________________________ • EXTENDED ABSTRACT What might be the best reason for an engineer keeping hand tools for metal work?(a) They would make a valuable historical collection(b) They are more powerful than electric tools(c) They can be used when the power goes off(d) They are less likely to break or wear out

30. Summary • SOLO is a hierarchic taxonomy—increasing quantity & quality of thought • SOLO is powerful in creating variety in the difficulty of curriculum & cognitive challenge • SOLO level depends on assumed ‘Givens’—the prior knowledge & tools available to students • Both Surface & Deep questions are needed, not one is better than the other

31. Contact Earl Irving Team Solutions University of Auckland 623 8899 Extn 48419 e.irving@auckland.ac.nz