Bloom and Bigg

Bloom’s Taxonomy

Bloom's Taxonomy is a framework for categorizing educational goals and objectives. It is often used to guide curriculum development, assessment, and instructional strategies. The taxonomy consists of three domains: cognitive, affective, and psychomotor, but the cognitive domain is the most widely referenced.

Purpose and Use

Bloom's Taxonomy helps educators:

• Design curricula and assessments that encourage higher-order thinking.
• Create learning objectives that are clear and measurable.
• Facilitate differentiated instruction to meet diverse learner needs.

Cognitive Domain

The cognitive domain is divided into six levels, arranged from lower to higher-order thinking skills:

1. Remembering: Recall basic facts and concepts (e.g., listing, defining).
2. Understanding: Comprehend the meaning of information (e.g., summarizing, explaining).
3. Applying: Use knowledge in new situations (e.g., solving problems, demonstrating).
4. Analyzing: Break down information into parts and understand its structure (e.g., comparing, organizing).
5. Evaluating: Make judgments based on criteria and standards (e.g., critiquing, justifying).
6. Creating: Generate new ideas or products (e.g., designing, constructing).
    

Bigg’s SOLO (Structure of the Observed Learning Outcome) Taxonomy

Bigg's SOLO Taxonomy is a framework developed by John Biggs and Kevin Collis to assess the quality of learning outcomes. It categorizes student responses based on the complexity of their understanding and can be used to evaluate both learning and teaching effectiveness. 

Purpose and Use

SOLO Taxonomy is useful for:

• Assessment: Evaluating the depth of student understanding and learning outcomes.
• Curriculum Design: Guiding educators in developing learning activities that promote deeper learning.
• Feedback: Providing clear criteria for students to improve their understanding and performance.

The taxonomy consists of five levels:

Levels of SOLO Taxonomy

1. Pre-structural: At this level, the learner lacks understanding and may provide irrelevant or incorrect responses. Knowledge is fragmented and not connected.
2. Uni-structural: The learner demonstrates a basic understanding by identifying one relevant aspect or fact. Responses are simple and tend to focus on isolated pieces of information.
3. Multi-structural: The learner can identify several relevant aspects but treats them as separate and unconnected. There is a collection of facts, but no deeper understanding of how they relate.
4. Relational: The learner understands the relationship between different aspects and can integrate them into a coherent whole. They can explain how concepts connect and apply this understanding to new situations.
5. Extended Abstract: At this highest level, the learner can make generalizations and transfer their understanding to new and different contexts. They can hypothesize and create new ideas based on their knowledge.