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Psychology

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.

5 phasesPsychology
When to Use This Framework

When participants seem unmotivated or disengaged

You need to understand what drives adult learners and how to create conditions for genuine engagement and retention.

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

The 5 Steps
Follow this sequence to apply 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.

What You'll Achieve

Taps into intrinsic motivation so participants actually want to participate.

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.

Practical Tips
How to get the most out of this framework
  • 1
    Give participants autonomy over how they engage
  • 2
    Connect content to their real challenges
  • 3
    Build confidence through early wins
  • 4
    Create psychological safety for sharing
Best For
  • Writing learning outcomes
  • Designing rubrics and feedback
  • Debrief and reflection questions
  • Higher education and professional learning
Key Principles
  • Understanding grows in structural complexity
  • Judge the outcome, not the task
  • Quantitative then qualitative growth
  • Constructive alignment of outcomes, activities and assessment
Watch Out For
  • 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).
Related Frameworks
Other Psychology frameworks you might find useful
AGES ModelThe AGES model summarises four conditions from memory research that help learning last: Attention, Generation, Emotion and Spacing. It gives designers of workplace learning a short checklist grounded in neuroscience of how memories are formed and recalled.
Cognitive Load TheoryCognitive Load Theory explains learning in terms of the limited capacity of working memory and the unlimited capacity of long-term memory. It distinguishes load caused by the content itself, by poor presentation and by the effort of building understanding, and gives design guidelines to avoid overloading learners.
ARCS Model (Keller)The ARCS model is a framework for designing motivation into instruction, built on four categories: Attention, Relevance, Confidence and Satisfaction. It also offers a systematic process for analysing an audience's motivation and choosing tactics to address gaps.