SOLO TAXONOMY CATEGORY DEFINITIONS

Unistructural

One aspect of a task is picked up or understood serially, and there is no relationship of facts or ideas.

Multistructural

Two or more aspects of a task are picked up or understood serially, but are not interrelated.

Relational

Two or more aspects of a task are integrated so that the whole has a coherent structure and meaning.

Extended Abstract

That coherent whole is generalized to a higher level of abstraction.The two surface level responses involve understanding of ideas or facts.

Unistructural responses and questions require the knowledge or use of only one piece of given information, fact, or idea, obtained directly from the problem. With an increase of quantity, multi structural responses or items require knowledge or use of more than one piece of given information, facts, or ideas, each used separately, or in two or more distinct steps, with no integration of the ideas. In contrast, the two deep process constitute a change of quality of thinking that is cognitively more challenging that surface Relational responses or questions require questions. Relational integration of at least two separate pieces of given knowledge, information, facts, or idea, which when working together answer the question. In other words, relational questions require learners to impose an organizing pattern on the given material. The highest level of the SOLO taxonomy, extended abstract requires the respondent to go beyond the given information, knowledge, information, or ideas and deduce a more general rule or proof that applies to all cases. In this latter cases, the learner is impose an organizing patter on the given material. The highest level of the SOLO taxonomy, extended abstract requires the respondent to go. beyond the given information, knowledge, information, or ideas and deduce a more general rule or proof that applies to all cases. In this latter case, the learner is forced to think beyond the given and bring in related, prior knowledge, ideas, information in order to create an answer; prediction, or hypothesis that extends the given to a wider range of situations.