(https://youtu.be/r8Qj5D38GQU) A comprehensive assignment on "COMPARATIVE REVIEW OF BLOOM AND SOLO TAXONOMY"

1. COMPARATIVE REVIEW OF BLOOM AND SOLO TAXONOMY
tasneemkhokhar1280/1281@gmail.com
Subscribe our channel:

2. Comparative Review Of Bloom And Solo Taxonomy
Bloom Taxonomy
After the 1948 Convention of the American Psychological Association, there was a debate related
to the classification of educational goals, and evaluation of student performance. Dr. Benjamin
Bloom was a famous educationist. Benjamin Bloom formulated a classification of "the goals of
the educational process.” This classification is commonly referring to as “Bloom’s Taxonomy”.
This taxonomy assists in formulating and categorizing learning goals. The purpose was to promote
higher forms of thinking in students in the educational process. Teachers have privileges in using
bloom taxonomy in the classroom. They can measure and set a goal according to certain skills
such as knowledge-based goals, skills-based goals, and affective goals (affective: values, attitudes,
and interests)
Lorin Anderson a former student of Bloom revise Bloom Taxonomy in 2001. He changes the
names in the six categories from noun to verb forms: Remember, Understands, Apply, Analyze,
Evaluate, Create (rather than Synthesize). There are three domains of educational activities or
learning in Bloom Taxonomy such as Cognitive Domain, Affective Domain, and Psychomotor
Domain. In each domain, they are further divided into sub-major categories that move from lower-
order skills/knowledge to higher-order skills/knowledge.
Cognitive Domain: The cognitive domain assists in the development of intellectual/mental
skills/abilities and assist in formulation learning goals. This includes the recall of specific facts,
procedural patterns, and concepts that serve in the development of intellectual abilities and skills.
There are six major categories, starting from the simplest behavior to the most complex. These
categories can be thought of as degrees of difficulties. That is, the first ones must normally be

3. mastered before the next ones can take place. In their cognitive domain, there are six stages,
namely: Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis, and Evaluation
Affective Domain: The affective domain concern with emotions and feeling, such as values,
appreciation, enthusiasms, motivations, and attitudes. The five levels of this domain include:
Receiving, responding, valuing, organization, and characterizing by value
Psychomotor Domain: The psychomotor domain concern with the development of physical and
kinesthetic skills it also includes physical movement and coordination of motor skills. These skills
required to practice and are measure in terms of speed, precision, distance, procedures, or
techniques in execution. The seven major categories are listed from the simplest behavior to the
most complex such as Perception, set, guided response, mechanism, complex or overt response,
adaptation.
Overall Bloom's taxonomy is related to the three Hs of the education process that are Head,
Heart, and Hand.

4. There are six general levels in Bloom’s Taxonomy:
 Knowledge - "involves the recall of specifics and universals, the recall of methods and
processes, or the recall of a pattern, structure, or setting."
 Comprehension - "refers to a type of understanding or apprehension such that the individual
knows what is being communicated and can make use of the material or idea being
communicated without necessarily relating it to other material or seeing its fullest
implications."
 Application - refers to the "use of abstractions in particular and concrete situations."
 Analysis - represents the "breakdown of a communication into its constituent elements or
parts such that the relative hierarchy of ideas is made clear and/or the relations between ideas
expressed are made explicit."
 Synthesis - involves the "putting together of elements and parts to form a whole."
 Evaluation - engenders "judgments about the value of material and methods for
given purposes."

5. Solo Taxonomy
SOLO taxonomy was developed by Biggs and Collis (1982) which is further explained by Biggs
and Tang (2007). According to Biggs, "SOLO, which stands for the Structure of
the Observed Learning Outcome, is a means of classifying learning outcomes in terms of their
complexity, enabling us to assess students' work in terms of its quality not of how many bits of
this and of that they got right. Punjab board in Pakistan use SOLO taxonomy for assessment. It
describes the level of increasing complexity in a student's understanding of a subject, through five
stages, and it is claimed to apply to any subject area. Not all students get through all five stages,
of course, and indeed not all teaching.
1) Pre-structural: (No Idea ) here students are simply acquiring bits of unconnected
information, which have no organization and make no sense.
2) Unistructural: (One Idea ) simple and obvious connections are made, but their
significance is not grasped
3) Multi-Structural: (Many Ideas ) several connections may be made, but the meta-
connections between them are missed, as is their significance for the whole.
4) Relational level:(Relate )the student is now able to appreciate the significance of the parts
concerning the whole.
5) At the extended abstract level: (Extend) the student is making connections not only
within the given subject area but also beyond it, able to generalize and transfer the
principles and ideas underlying the specific instance.

6. Comparison of Bloom And Solo Taxonomy
Bloom's Taxonomy SOLO Taxonomy
Pioneer: Bloom taxonomy was developed by Dr.
Benjamin Bloom with the coordination of educationists
and psychologists committee. Later on, it was revised by
his former student Lorin Anderson in 2001.
Pioneer: SOLO taxonomy was developed by Biggs and
Collis (1982) which is further explained by Biggs and
Tang in 2007.

7. Purpose: The purpose is to promote higher forms of
thinking in students in the educational process.
Purpose: The purpose is to classifying learning outcomes
in terms of their complexity, enabling us to assess
students' work in terms of its quality not of how many bits
of this and of that they got right.
Process: Bloom’s Taxonomy is a systematic process of
describing how a learner’s performance develops from
simple to complex levels in their affective, psychomotor,
and cognitive domain of learning.
Process: Biggs’s Solo (Structure of the Observed
Learning Outcomes) Taxonomy is a systematic way of
describing how a learner’s performance develops from
simple to complex levels in their learning.
Example: Take, for example, a series of art questions
suggested by Hamben (1984).
o Knowledge: Who painted Guernica?
o Comprehension: Describe the subject matter of
Guernica.
o Application: Relate the theme of Guernica to a
current event.
o Analysis: What compositional principles did Picasso
use in Guernica?
o Synthesis: Imagine yourself as one of the figures in
Guernica and describe your life history?
o Evaluation: What is your opinion of Picasso’s
Guernica?
Example: When using the SOLO taxonomy, either the
questions would be written differently, or the test scorer
would concentrate on classifying the responses only. An
example of re-writing to maximize the correspondence
between the question asked and the answer expected is:
o Uni-structural: Who painted Guernica?
o Multi-structural: Outline at least two compositional
principles that Picasso used in Guernica.
o Relational: Relate the theme of Guernica to a current
event.
o Extended Abstract: What do you consider Picasso
was saying via his painting of Guernica?

8. Goal and Objectives: Bloom taxonomy
objectives for learning can be grouped into three major
domains:
a. Cognitive Domain (HEAD) (knowledge-based
goals)
b. Affective Domain (HEART) (values, attitudes, and
interests)
c. Psychomotor (HAND) (skills-based goals)
Goal and Objectives: Biggs and Collins (1982)
categorize the knowledge objectives into three categories
based on content goals:
a. Knowledge of facts
b. Knowledge of concepts
c. Knowledge of generalizations
Order Of Difficulty: Bloom has argued that his
taxonomy is related not only to complexity but also to an
order of difficulty such that problems requiring behavior
at one level should be answered more correctly before
tackling problems requiring behavior at a higher level
Order Of Difficulty: This is not a requirement of the
SOLO taxonomy.
Question: The Bloom taxonomy presupposes that there
is a necessary relationship between the questions asked
and the responses to be elicited.
Question: In the solo taxonomy both the questions and the
answers can be at distinct levels.
Description of Process: Bloom’s taxonomy refers to the
type of thinking or processing required in completing
tasks or answering questions; i.e. know, comprehend,
Description of Process: SOLO describes the processes
involved in asking and answering a question on a scale of
increasing difficulty or complexity.

9. apply, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate (Bloom,
Engelhart, Furst, Hill & Krathwohl, 1956).
Disadvantage: Teachers do not know about students'
other abilities means exam stress, exam fever.
1) Rote learning
2) Leaner
 Bloom's confused verb use across levels.
 There is no necessary progression in the manner
of teaching or learning in the Bloom taxonomy.
Advantage: Teachers knew about students other abilities
1) Motivational learning
2) Circular
 SOLO has a clarity of verb use for each level.Clarity
of verb level is a powerful advantage when educators
are planning and writing learning intentions using
OBE and constructive alignment - and when students
are doing their inquiry.
 Both teachers and students often progress from more
surface to deeper constructs and this is mirrored in
the four levels of the SOLO taxonomy
Nature: It based on a theory about knowledge (Hattie
and Brown, 2004).
Bloom is based on skills and knowledge.
 Nature: SOLO is based upon a theory about teaching and
learning (Hattie and Brown, 2004)
 SOLO is a theory about teaching and learning.
Judging The Outcome: Bloom’s taxonomy is not
accompanied by criteria for judging the outcome of the
activity(Ennis, 1985)
 Judging The Outcome: SOLO explicitly useful for
judging the outcomes.

10. Development: Bloom's developed from a proposal by a
committee of educators.
 Bloom separates 'knowledge' from the intellectual
abilities or process that operate on this 'knowledge'
Development: SOLO is research/evidence-based on the
structure of student learning outcome
 SOLO taxonomy is primarily based on the processes
of understanding used by the students when answering
the prompts. Knowledge, therefore, permeates across
all levels of the SOLO taxonomy.
Learner’s Performance: Blooms’ Taxonomy is a
systematic way of describing how a learner’s
performance develops from simple to complex levels in
their affective, psychomotor, and cognitive domain
learning.
Learner’s Performance: The taxonomy consists of two
major categories each containing two increasingly
complex stages:
Surface = Uni-structural and Multi-structural;
Deep = Relational and Extended Abstract
Relationship Between Question and Response: The
Bloom taxonomy presupposes that there is a necessary
relationship between the questions asked and the
responses to be elicited.
Relationship Between Question and Response: SOLO
taxonomy both the questions and the answers can be at
differing levels.
a) Popularity and Use: The taxonomy was published in
1956, has sold over a million copies, has been
translated into several languages, and has been cited
thousands of times.
1) Popularity and Use: SOLO (Structure of Observed
Learning Outcomes) is a model of learning that helps
develop a common understanding & language of
learning for both teachers and students.

11.  Continues to be one of the most universally applied
models
 The Bloom taxonomy has been extensively used in
teacher education to suggest learning and teaching
strategies, has formed the basis of many tests
developed by teachers (at least while they were in
teacher training), and has been used to evaluate many
tests.
 Adapted for classroom use as a planning tool
 SOLO taxonomy is to use effective success criteria to
provide feedback and feedforward on learning
outcomes and reflect meaningfully on what to do next.
 SOLO has high inter-rater reliability - educators and
students tend to agree when moderating student work
against SOLO levels.
 It makes it easy to identify and use effective’s success
criteria.
Classification: Classification of thinking organized by
levels of complexity lower to higher-order thinking. This
means of expressing qualitatively distinct kinds of
thinking.
 It provides a way to organize thinking skills into six
levels, from the most basic to the higher-order levels
of thinking.
Classification: Solo taxonomy provides a simple and
robust way of describing how learning outcomes grow in
complexity from the surface to deep understanding. There
are 5 stages, namely Pre-structural, Uni-structural, Multi-
structural which are in a quantitative phrase and Relational
and Extended Abstract which are in a qualitative phrase.
 SOLO is based on levels of ascending cognitive
complexity.
 SOLO levels can be communicated through text, hand
signs, and symbols - across large and noisy learning
environments.
Evaluation: Evaluation:

12. Evaluation of learners is classified into three domains of
learning.
 Each domain is specific to some particular skills
 Students have to achieve the first level to go
further.
 It focuses on students skills/abilities.
 It provides feedback and feedforward with regards to
learning outcomes.
 The process of evaluation to pay attention to how
students learn.
 This taxonomy is used by Punjab board for the
assessment of the board exam.
 How teachers devise instructional procedures to help
students use progressively more complex cognitive
processes.
 SOLO is explicitly useful for judging the outcomes
 When using the SOLO Taxonomy, the
assessment must be aligned with the desired learning
outcomes and eventual student needs if these are to be
achieved.

13. Students
Not great for students (Due to complex procedure) such
as I have done applying sir, can I move on to analysis
now?
It helps the students to probe further to ask more detailed
questions as well as create instructions that are aimed at
improving critical thinking as they strive to reach the top
three levels of analysis, synthesis, and evaluation
as students get ready to reach such levels
Bloom's taxonomy was developed to provide a common
language for teachers to discuss and exchange learning
and assessment methods. ... The goal of an educator
using Bloom's taxonomy is to encourage higher-order
thought in their students by building up from lower-level
cognitive skills
Students
a. Good for students
b. SOLO is brutally and blissfully simple and can be used
by students as young as five to look at their learning
outcome and the learning outcomes of their peers
c. It helps students to reflect meaningfully on what the
next steps in their learning are.
d. It supports students to reflect on their thinking.
e. It encourages students to think about where they are
currently with their learning, and what they need to do
to progress.
Teacher
 it is ‘good’ for teachers: planning, questioning,&
checking to learn
 it uses used more by teachers than by students
Teacher
 It helps teachers (and students) understand the
learning process.
 It helps teachers to thoughtfully shape learning
intentions and learning experiences.

14.  Teachers have privileges in using bloom taxonomy in
the classroom. They can measure and set a goal
according to certain skills such as knowledge-based
goals, skills-based goals, and affective goals
(affective: values, attitudes, and interests)
it helps teachers to:
1. “plan and deliver appropriate instruction”;
2. “design valid assessment tasks and strategies”;
and
3. “ensure that instruction and assessment are
aligned with the objectives.”
 It makes it easy to identify and use effective
success criteria.

16. References
 Chan C (2010) Assessment: Blooms’ Taxonomy, Assessment Resources @HKU,
University of Hong
Kong [http://ar.cetl.hku.hk/large_class.htm]: Available: Accessed: DATE
 http://pamhook.com/wiki/SOLO_Taxonomy_versus_Bloom%27s_Taxonomy#:~:text=Th
e%20Bloom%20taxonomy%20presupposes%20that,can%20be%20at%20differing%20le
vels.&text=Knowledge%2C%20therefore%2C%20permeates%20across%20all%20levels
%20of%20the%20SOLO%20taxonomy.
 https://specialties.bayt.com/en/specialties/q/91929/what-is-difference-between-solo-
taxonomy-and-bloom-taxononmy/
 https://eductechalogy.org/2017/07/03/forget-blooms-heres-to-solo-teaching/
 https://ar.cetl.hku.hk/bloom.htm
 https://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/finding_common_ground/2014/02/whats_our_best_taxo
nomy_blooms_or_solo.html
 https://digiteacher.wordpress.com/2014/04/11/why-i-prefer-the-solo-taxonomy-to-
blooms/
 https://www.slideshare.net/sqjafery/solo-taxonomy-45353566
 https://www.slideshare.net/didau/introduction-to-solo-taxonomy
 https://www.aiou.edu.pk/SoftBooks/8602.rar
 http://pamhook.com/wiki/Advantages_of_SOLO_Taxonomy