As a school we have made the commitment to develop SOLO as a strategy used throughout all curriculum areas and across every level of the school.

SOLO stands for the Structure of Observed Learning Outcomes.  It is a way of learning that develops deeper and higher order thinking.  Students are encouraged to think more creatively about something.  They learn to question, find patterns, explore things from different points of view, make judgements, and critically reflect on what they are doing.

SOLO is divided into 5 stages

Prestructural – the student has missed the point or needs help to align with the learning goal.

Unistructural stage  - the students can give one idea about a topic.  Their understanding is limited and disconnected to the learning goal.

Multistructural - the students can give several ideas about a topic but they are not related to each other and to the learning goal.

Relational - the students have linked and integrated their ideas to gain a deeper understanding of the learning goal.  They can explain causes or effects of ideas.

Extended Abstract – the students can look at the linked ideas in a new way and use them as a basis for predicting, evaluating, generalising and reflecting and/or for co-creating a new understanding or action.

Prestructural       Unistructional            Multistructural                                 Relational                                 Extended Abstract

With SOLO as a model, young learners can see that all learning involves their efforts to bring in ideas, to connect ideas and to extend ideas.

Students learn to self assess and reflect on their work using SOLO to focus on the complexity of their thinking.

'Learning to learn' requires the learner to think about the strengths and weaknesses of their own thinking when they are learning and to make thoughtful decisions on what to do next.  Students of all ages can use SOLO levels, rubrics and frameworks to answer the following questions:

• What am I learning?
• How is it going?
• What do I do next?

Research shows that SOLO improves student learning outcomes, raises student confidence and increases student engagement.