# data[].attributes.body
Good to review- aligns nicely to other ideas here

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Carol Dweck: A Summary of The Two Mindsets

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A summary of Carol Dweck’s book Mindset, which explores our two mindsets (fixed and growth) and how they impact not only our attitudes and learning but also our outcomes.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
In 1956, Benjamin Bloom with collaborators Max Englehart, Edward Furst, Walter Hill, and David Krathwohl published a framework for categorizing educational goals: Taxonomy of Educational Objectives.

Familiarly known as Bloom's Taxonomy, this framework has been applied by generations of K-12 teachers, college and university instructors and professors in their teaching.

The framework elaborated by Bloom and his collaborators consisted of six major categories: Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis, and Evaluation. The categories after Knowledge were presented as "skills and abilities," with the understanding that knowledge was the necessary precondition for putting these skills and abilities into practice.

The Revised Taxonomy (2001)

While each category contained subcategories, all lying along a continuum from simple to complex and concrete to abstract, the taxonomy is popularly remembered according to the six main categories.

A group of cognitive psychologists, curriculum theorists and instructional researchers, and testing and assessment specialists published in 2001 a revision of Bloom's Taxonomy with the title A Taxonomy for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment. This title draws attention away from the somewhat static notion of "educational objectives" (in Bloom's original title) and points to a more dynamic conception of classification.

The authors of the revised taxonomy underscore this dynamism, using verbs and gerunds to label their categories and subcategories (rather than the nouns of the original taxonomy). These "action words" describe the cognitive processes by which thinkers encounter and work with knowledge.

Course Objectives

Bloom's Taxonomy is a hierarchical classification of the different levels of thinking, and should be applied when creating course objectives. Course objectives are brief statements that describe what students will be expected to learn by the end of the course. Many instructors have learning objectives when developing a course. However, many instructors do not write learning objectives. The full power of learning objectives is realized when the learning objectives are explicitly stated. Writing clear learning objectives are critical to creating and teaching a course.

Evolution and Application

Read this Ultimate Guide to gain a deep understanding of Bloom's taxonomy, how it has evolved over the decades and how it can be effectively applied in the learning process to benefit both educators and learners.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Blooms Taxonomy :: Resource for Educators

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A resource for educators or institutions utilizing Bloom's Taxonomy to structure the development or modification of curriculum and/or courses

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Solo Taxonomy is a systematic way that describes how learners' understanding build from easy to difficult while learning different tasks or subjects. The Solo Taxonomy can be used to enhance the quality of learning within the classroom teaching and provide a systematic way of developing deep understanding (Damopolii, 2020). Student learning can be guided in ways that promote deep learning.

What is SOLO taxonomy?

SOLO ( Structure of Observed Learning Outcomes) offers a structured outline for the learners to use to build their learning and thinking. It motivates students to ponder where they are presently in terms of their level of understanding, and what they must do to progress.

Five Stages of Solo Taxonomy

Biggs and Collis defined the Structure of the Observed Learning Outcomesproduced by learners on basis of complexity. Their proposed model explained levels of growing complexity in a learner's understanding of performance tasks or subjects. There are five stages of understanding of SOLO Taxonomy. It's levels are hierarchal and each level is affected by the previous level and contributes something to it. As well as providing classrooms with a language of learning, the learning verbs can also be used to create assessment tasks. The complexity of student response can be increased as their depth of understanding grows. The student response can be used to develop a coherent understanding of subjects.

SOLO taxonomy as an alternative to Bloom's Taxonomy

In 1982, Biggs and Collis devised The SOLO Taxonomy (Structure of Observed Learning Outcomes) as an alternative of Bloom's Taxonomy (Cognitive Domain). From several decades, Bloom's Taxonomy has been used to build learning and teaching strategies. Bloom's classifies learning from simply memorizing to more complex cognitive process such as evaluating and analyzing.

The Solo Taxonomy offers a measure of understanding of thinking or cognitive learning outcomes that most of the teachers feel comfortable adopting. The hierarchical model of Solo Taxonomy is comprehensive, provided with objective criteria, and used for a variety of subjects and for a variety of assignments. Teachers like how SOLO indicates student learning using diverse material in levels of increasing structural complexity, and that these levels show a similar pattern across tasks.

‍

‍

Bloom's Taxonomy Vs Solo Taxonomy

1. The Bloom's taxonomy implies that there is an essential relationship between the questions asked and their responses; whereas, both the question and answer can have a different level in SOLO taxonomy.

2. Bloom's Taxonomy differentiates 'knowledge' from the intellectual processes or abilities that function on this 'knowledge' whereas the SOLO taxonomy is at its core based upon the processes of understanding used by the learners when responding to the prompts. Hence, knowledge pervades across each level of the SOLO taxonomy.

3. Bloom argues that his taxonomy does not only relate complexity but also relates a sequence of difficulty; whereas, there is no such requirement of increasing difficulty in case of the SOLO method.

4. Bloom's taxonomy does not accompany criteria for guessing the results of any activity; whereas, SOLO taxonomy is precisely useful for guessing the outcomes (Crompton, 2019).

5. Both taxonomies along with the Universal Thinking Framework, enable children to talk about their learning more effectively.

Five Hierarchical Levels of Understanding

The SOLO Taxonomy has five hierarchical levels of understanding and all the stages include the previous stage and adds something to it.

(Acquired from Biggs, 2011)

This is an incompetent stage, where learner does not know anything about the task or the subject. At this stage, the student simply gets unconnected information, which has no sense or organization. The student remains unable to understand the information; hence, he does not demonstrate understanding.

This is a stage, when learner knows just a single relevant aspect of a task or a subject. At this stage, the student only knows about the basic concept of the task or the subject. Therefore, a student can make easy and apparent connections; but, he does not know the broader significance of the information. The students' response indicates concrete understanding of the task, but it pays attention to only one relevant aspect.

At this stage, the student knows numerous relevant independent aspects. Although, the learners understand the relationship between different aspects but it's relationship to the whole remains unclear. Concepts and ideas about a topic are not connected. The students can make several connections, but they do not understand the significance of the whole. The students' response is based upon some relevant aspects, but their responses are treated independently.

This is a stage where aspects of knowledge are combined to form a structure. At this stage, the student is able to understand the importance of different parts in relation to one whole. Concepts and Ideas are connected, and they offer coherent knowledge of the whole. The students' response shows an understanding of the task by being able to combine all the parts. Students can demonstrate how the each part contributes to the whole.

This is a stage where knowledge is generalized to build a new domain. After reaching this level the students do not only make connections within the provided task but they also create connections beyond it. Students can transfer and generalize the concepts and principles from one subject area into another domain. The students' response shows that they can conceptualize beyond the level of what has been taught. They are able to propose new concepts and ideas on basis of their understanding of the task or subject being taught.

Why is The SOLO Taxonomy a good fit for Hattie's ideas?

John Hattie is an advocate of SOLO Taxonomy. Hattie has divided it in a manner which is easier for the learners to understand, and allows learners to assess their own learning. According to Hattie, teachers can use:

1. No Idea - (like the pre-structural level)

2. One Idea - (like uni-structural level)

3. Many Ideas - (like multi-structural level)

4. Relate - (like relational level)

5. Extend - (like extended abstract)

‍

SOLO visualised

Why is Solo Taxonomy useful?

Solo Taxonomy is useful because:

1. It helps learners to reflect meaningfullyon what the next levels in their learning are.

2. It helps instructors to thoughtfully design learning experiences and learning intentions.

3. It is used by the teachers and students together.

4. It makes it convenient to identify and implement effective success criteria.

5. It offers feedforward and feedback for the learning outcomes.

6. Students understand the reasons for everything they do and realise improvements are due to their own strategies

7. It shows the difference between deep and surface understanding, helping learners understand where they are on that spectrum, and what they must do to progress.

‍

SOLO examples related to the weather

‍

‍

How does the Universal Thinking Framework build on the SOLO Taxonomy?

Like the SOLO taxonomy, the universal thinking framework is used to increase the depth of student understanding by building cognitive structures or schemas. The taxonomy helps classrooms develop a strong language for learning that can be used to guide classroom practice in productive ways. The colour-coded nature of the command words enables educators to create simple procedures that un-complicate the learning process. This improves engagement in learning as the language can be used to devise a challenging question that keeps students on their toes. Used in both Primary and Secondary schools, the Universal Thinking Framework can be used to advance complex thinking skills and depth of knowledge. You can learn more about the framework here: https://www.structural-learning.com/thinking-framework

‍

The Universal Thinking Framework

References to SOLO Taxonomy

Biggs, J., & Collis, K. (1989). Towards a model of school-based curriculum development and assessment using the SOLO taxonomy. Australian journal of education, 33(2), 151-163.

Biggs, J. B. (2011). Teaching for quality learning at university: What the student does. McGraw-hill education (UK).

Crompton, H., Burke, D., & Lin, Y. C. (2019). Mobile learning and student cognition: A systematic review of PK‐12 research using Bloom's Taxonomy. British Journal of Educational Technology, 50(2), 684-701.

Damopolii, I., Nunaki, J. H., Nusantari, E., & Kandowangko, N. Y. (2020, June). The effectiveness of Inquiry-based learning to train students' thinking skill based on SOLO taxonomy. In Journal of Physics: Conference Series (Vol. 1567, No. 4, p. 042025). IOP Publishing.

Other Links

Want more? Here is a link on Problems with Bloom's Taxonomy (Invalid, unreliable, impractical) Want to dive into SOLO model? Check out Pam Hook's Website. Start with these two introductory books: (pamhook.com)

To review the SOLO taxonomy you can view three minutes of the video Understanding, from Teaching Teaching & Understanding Understanding, section 3 (3:15 - 6:18). (youtube.com)

SOLO Taxonomy: A Guide for Schools Bk 1: a Common Language by Julie Mills and Pam Hook SOLO Taxonomy: A Guide for Schools Bk 2 by Pam Hook Julie Mills Leave a reply © 2019 Eductechalogy. All rights reserved. (amazon.com)

‍

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Solo Taxonomy is a systematic way that describes how learners' understanding build from easy to difficult while learning different tasks or subjects. The Solo Taxonomy can be used to enhance the quality of learning within the classroom teaching and provide a systematic way of developing deep understanding (Damopolii, 2020).

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
As students gain content knowledge, their next step should be applying it to new problems and across academic disciplines.

As teachers, we all want our students to solve problems that incorporate content we just taught them. Or, we want them to illustrate how they can take knowledge from another discipline and apply it to our class. Often we are bogged down with suggestions from books or experts that are too time-consuming or take us away from the course content that we know is critical for students to learn. However, with a few simple adjustments, we can get students to engage in applying their learning in short order.

Applying Content Knowledge

While it may seem counterintuitive, getting students to apply their learning is the polar opposite of what they need to do when learning new content-based information. Applying learning is all about range-seeing across problems, evaluating multiple situations, and learning how to take what we already know and seeing where it may be helpful in real-world situations. Learning content knowledge is all about depth-defining and describing facts, comparing and contrasting those ideas to better understand key principles and practices within a discipline.

Let's take a look at the differences. Let's suppose a teacher wants students to learn how to count to 100. To develop depth, the teacher would provide direct instruction, guided practice, and independent practice. The students would then work on a problem-solving activity such as the Bright Idea 3-Act Task. However, to learn how to apply knowledge, students would need to compare and contrast the Bright Ideas problem with another word problem such as the Pringle Ringle. Here students are looking across problems rather than solving one problem. This latter activity is a core part of developing a student's ability to transfer.

In order to facilitate this process for students, we need an instructional tool kit to apply in the classroom or the Zoom room.

5 Tools to Support Students in Applying Their Learning

1. Create analogies from classroom-based problems: When you give students a problem, ask them to refrain from solving the problem and instead invent a new problem that is similar to the problem they were given. Again, if we go back to the math problems above, imagine if we would have asked students to create their own math word problem and present how the problem is similar and different from the Bright Idea and Pringle Ringle problems. This type of priming would have focused students on invention while simultaneously seeking the deeper understanding of mathematics.

2. Give kids problems that people outside the classroom are working on or discussing. Make sure that kids talk to those same people: When you give students a problem, provide them with opportunities to talk directly with people who are impacted or involved with such problems. If you're working on a problem associated with counting, have students talk with bankers, accountants, business officials, student council members, and store clerks to better understand the importance of counting and how it is used in a variety of fields. This certainly doesn't have to take an entire class period. One or two short video interviews should be enough to support students in understanding the importance and impact of what they're learning.

3. Give students more than one situation to evaluate: Make sure that students compare different situations that involve the same core content knowledge and skills. As discussed earlier, having students evaluate the Bright Idea and Pringle Ringle problems enables students to see the relationship of counting to both problems as well as the uniqueness of each problem's context (light bulbs and Pringles). One simple strategy to use is a Venn diagram. A Venn diagram is a strategy that allows students to fill out the differences between each situation and the commonality between both problems.

4. Change the context when students are solving a problem: Imagine for a moment that students were working to solve the Pringle Ringle problem and the teacher told the students to stop working on that problem and begin working on a new problem such as the Bright Idea problem. By providing a bit of cueing, students can evaluate their current work and compare it with the new problem.

5. View different perspectives: When evaluating a situation, teachers should challenge students to evaluate problems from different viewpoints. In mathematics, this may mean using visual representation of a solution versus an algorithmic solution. In science, this may require qualitative as well as quantitative data to make a judgment. In the humanities, this may require students to read a different perspective. All in all, these strategies enable students to step away from the core content they were focusing on and bring to bear information that has not yet been considered, including prior knowledge from different contexts.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
5 Ways to Help Students Transfer Their Learning to New Situations

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
As students gain content knowledge, their next step should be applying it to new problems and across academic disciplines.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
A Giant List Of Really Good Essential Questions

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Essential questions are ‘essential’ in the sense of signaling genuine, important and necessarily-ongoing inquiries.

# data[].attributes.body
The IB Framework (PYP, MYP, DP) uses concepts and has a lot of easy-to-use resources that can be adapted

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Key Concepts are trans-disciplinary. The table below outlines which Key Concepts are assigned to each subject group, with the aim that they are addressed through the course. A good model is to 'spiral' them through the curriculum, addressing each one in each year.

Choose one per unit, paying attention to the definitions below.

It is fine to use a different Key Concept in the unit, if it fits the objectives of the unit and as long as the Key Concepts for the unit are addressed in the year.

The Key Concepts below are good way to connect subjects for inter-disciplinary units.

Aesthetics

Aesthetics deals with the characteristics, creation, meaning and perception of beauty and taste. The study of aesthetics develops skills for the critical appreciation and analysis of art, culture and nature.

Change

Change is a conversion, transformation, or movement from one form, state or value to another. Inquiry into the concept of change involves understanding and evaluating causes, processes and consequences.

Communication

Communication is the exchange or transfer of signals, facts, ideas and symbols. It requires a sender, a message and an intended receiver. Communication involves the activity of conveying information or meaning. Effective communication requires a common 'language' (which may be written, spoken or non-verbal).

Communities

Communities are groups that exist in proximity defined by space, time or relationship. Communities include, for example, groups of people sharing particular characteristics, beliefs or values as well as groups of interdependent organisms living together in a specific habitat.

Connections

Connections are links, bonds and relationships among people, objects, organisms or ideas.

Creativity

Creativity is the process or ability to make or produce something new and original, often characterized by the use of imagination or divergent thinking. It may be evident in the process as well as the outcome, solution or product.

Culture

Culture encompasses a range of learned and shared beliefs, values, interests, attitudes, products, ways of knowing and patterns of behaviour created by human communities. The concept of culture is dynamic and organic.

Development

Development is the act or process of growth, progress or evolution, sometimes through Iterative improvements.

Form

Form is the shape and underlying structure of an entity or piece of work, including its organization, essential nature and external appearance.

Global Interactions

Global interaction focuses on the connections among individuals and communities, as well as their relationships with built and natural environments, from the perspective of the world as a whole.

Identity

Identity is the state or fact of being the same. It refers to the particular features which define individuals, groups, things, eras, places, symbols and styles. Identity can be observed, or it can be constructed, asserted, and shaped by external and internal influences.

Logic

Logic is a method of reasoning and a system of principles used to build arguments and reach conclusions.

Perspectives

Perspective is the position from which we observe situations, objects, facts, ideas and opinions. Perspective may be associated with individuals, groups, cultures or disciplines. Different perspectives often lead to multiple representations and interpretations.

Relationships

Relationships are the connections and associations between properties, objects, people and ideas-including the human community's connections with the world in which we live. Any change in relationship brings consequences-some of which may occur on a small scale, while others may be far reaching, affecting large networks and systems like human societies and the planetary ecosystem.

Systems

Systems are sets of interacting or interdependent components. Systems provide structure and order in human, natural and built environments. Systems can be static or dynamic, simple or complex.

Time, Place & Space

Time, place and space: The intrinsically-linked concept of time, space and place refers to the absolute or relative position of people, objects and ideas. 'Time, place and space' focuses on how we construct and use our understanding of location ("where" and "when").

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Key & Related Concepts - Teaching and Learning at Canadian Academy

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Teaching and learning at Canadian Academy - Kobe, Japan. A continuum, World IB School, teaching and learning at Canadian Academy is based on inquiry, focused conceptual understanding, developed in local and global contexts, focused on collaboration, differentiated and informed by assessment.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Cite this guide: Bowen, R. S. (2017). Understanding by Design. Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. Retrieved [todaysdate] from https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/understanding-by-design/.

Overview

Understanding by Design is a book written by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe that offers a framework for designing courses and content units called "Backward Design." Instructors typically approach course design in a "forward design" manner, meaning they consider the learning activities (how to teach the content), develop assessments around their learning activities, then attempt to draw connections to the learning goals of the course. In contrast, the backward design approach has instructors consider the learning goals of the course first. These learning goals embody the knowledge and skills instructors want their students to have learned when they leave the course. Once the learning goals have been established, the second stage involves consideration of assessment. The backward design framework suggests that instructors should consider these overarching learning goals and how students will be assessed prior to consideration of how to teach the content. For this reason, backward design is considered a much more intentional approach to course design than traditional methods of design.

This teaching guide will explain the benefits of incorporating backward design. Then it will elaborate on the three stages that backward design encompasses. Finally, an overview of a backward design template is provided with links to blank template pages for convenience.

The Benefits of Using Backward Design
"Our lessons, units, and courses should be logically inferred from the results sought, not derived from the methods, books, and activities with which we are most comfortable. Curriculum should lay out the most effective ways of achieving specific results... in short, the best designs derive backward from the learnings sought."
In Understanding by Design, Wiggins and McTighe argue that backward design is focused primarily on student learning and understanding. When teachers are designing lessons, units, or courses, they often focus on the activities and instruction rather than the outputs of the instruction. Therefore, it can be stated that teachers often focus more on teaching rather than learning. This perspective can lead to the misconception that learning is the activity when, in fact, learning is derived from a careful consideration of the meaning of the activity.

As previously stated, backward design is beneficial to instructors because it innately encourages intentionality during the design process. It continually encourages the instructor to establish the purpose of doing something before implementing it into the curriculum. Therefore, backward design is an effective way of providing guidance for instruction and designing lessons, units, and courses. Once the learning goals, or desired results, have been identified, instructors will have an easier time developing assessments and instruction around grounded learning outcomes.

The incorporation of backward design also lends itself to transparent and explicit instruction. If the teacher has explicitly defined the learning goals of the course, then they have a better idea of what they want the students to get out of learning activities. Furthermore, if done thoroughly, it eliminates the possibility of doing certain activities and tasks for the sake of doing them. Every task and piece of instruction has a purpose that fits in with the overarching goals and goals of the course.

As the quote below highlights, teaching is not just about engaging students in content. It is also about ensuring students have the resources necessary to understand. Student learning and understanding can be gauged more accurately through a backward design approach since it leverages what students will need to know and understand during the design process in order to progress.
"In teaching students for understanding, we must grasp the key idea that we are coaches of their ability to play the 'game' of performing with understanding, not tellers of our understanding to them on the sidelines."
The Three Stages of Backward Design
"Deliberate and focused instructional design requires us as teachers and curriculum writers to make an important shift in our thinking about the nature of our job. The shift involves thinking a great deal, first, about the specific learnings sought, and the evidence of such learnings, before thinking about what we, as the teacher, will do or provide in teaching and learning activities."

The Backward Design Template

A link to the blank backward design template is provided here ( https://jaymctighe.com/resources/), and it is referred to as UbD Template 2.0. The older version (version 1.0) can also be downloaded at that site as well as other resources relevant to Understanding by Design. The template walks individuals through the stages of backward design. However, if you are need of the template with descriptions of each section, please see the table below. There is also a link to the document containing the template with descriptions provided below and can be downloaded for free.

Backward Design Template with Descriptions (click link for template with descriptions).

References

1. Sample, Mark. (2011). Teaching for Enduring Understanding. Retrieved from http://www.chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/teaching-for-enduring-understanding/35243.

2. Wiggins, Grant, and McTighe, Jay. (1998). Backward Design. In Understanding by Design (pp. 13-34). ASCD.

This teaching guide is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
by Ryan S. Bowen Print Version Cite this guide: Bowen, R. S. (2017). Understanding by Design. Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. Retrieved [todaysdate] from https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/understanding-by-design/. Overview The Benefits of Using Backward Design The Three Stages of Backward Design The Backward Design Template Overview Understanding by Design is a book written by Grant Wiggins and Jay...