Making Sense of SOLO

We are looking higher order thinking as part of getting cognitive engagement for our students at Pt England School. This is a presentation I prepared as part of our staff PD to introduce SOLO as a thinking taxonomy.

Teaching Inquiry

We are embarking on our inquiries for the year and the collaborative inquiry group I'm working with a group who are looking into follow up maths tasks. We know there's more that can be done to cognitively engage students when they aren't working with the teacher. The question is What?

At Pt England we have been working towards using a more problem solving approach in our teaching groups. Our flexible groupings encourage sharing of thinking and argumentation. But most of the time students are working independently.

Are the follow up tasks cognitively engaging?

Are they worthwhile?

Is what they do helping to lift maths achievement?

We want to trial different types of learning activities to help reinforce maths concepts and extend thinking.

To engage in professional inquiry that makes a difference for students, teachers need to learn how to identify the pedagogical content knowledge and skills they need to assist their students to achieve the valued outcomes. The core question is, “What do I as teacher need to learn to promote the learning of my students?”
Timperley