A Taxonomy for Choosing Effective Teaching and Learning Strategies
11/01/2024
The goal of undergraduate medical education is to equip students with the ability to perform well in their future profession as physicians. Students therefore not only need to attain in-depth medical knowledge, skills, and competencies, but also apply them in patient care.
Future physicians should be able to correctly diagnose patients, make informed decisions regarding treatments, and communicate this information effectively. To achieve these outcomes students must move from novice to relative expert in a short amount of time. This transition from novice to expert can be understood through the (SOLO) taxonomy.
The SOLO taxonomy is a systematic description of how students build knowledge structures while learning different tasks or subjects. The can be used to enhance the quality of teaching and provide a systematic way of developing deep understanding, moving students through five levels of knowledge acquisition: pre-structural, unistructural, multi-structural, relational, and extended abstract. Each level builds on the previous and embodies a higher degree of complexity and depth of understanding.
Within the SOLO taxonomy, the student first acquires data, such as facts, skills, or concepts at the unistructural level. The student then begins to recognize how those concepts are organized and related to one another at the multi-structural and relational levels. Finally, students can use those skills, facts, or concepts in some way, such as solving a problem, making a judgment, or treating a patient at the extended abstract level.
The strategies that novices need to acquire facts are different than those needed
to acquire the relational knowledge necessary for application. This is called the
, referring to the idea that learners with differing levels of prior knowledge show
a reversal of the effectiveness of instructional techniques. That is, the strategies
that work best for a novice are poor strategies for experts, and strategies that work
best for experts reduce learning outcomes for novices. Expertise reversal is typically
explained within a , which assumes that a learner’s existing cognitive resources can influence the effectiveness
of instructional techniques. Novice learners, with little background knowledge, need
explicit instruction of factual material. As learners acquire more knowledge, they
need fewer resources to understand the content, and instructional design methods need
to be adjusted to maximize learning.
An example of this is how undergraduate medical education students use the third-party resource . When students are first learning facts, Anki flashcards help students to acquire new knowledge and commit it to memory at the unistructural level. While this is good for merely knowing the facts, it will later prove to be unhelpful when the time comes to apply the facts to patient scenarios. Recognizing that strategies for memorization differ from strategies for application is a critical skill of a lifelong, self-directed learner, which is crucial for a physician in training.
Applying the SOLO Taxonomy in your role
Learners must consider their own knowledge in an area and adjust the strategies they are using to move from acquiring facts to understanding relationships between them. This requires both metacognitive awareness and metacognitive regulation, both of which are enhanced with formative self-testing and careful reflection. Learners should assess their factual knowledge before switching from content learning (e.g., through textbooks, videos, and Anki) to practicing application (e.g., through question banks). Importantly, we are all novice learners in certain domains. Medical students might be novices in gross anatomy, while residents might be novices in communicating complex information to patients. As new treatments and technologies such as artificial intelligence emerge, even experts in medicine again become novices and must approach their learning differently than in an area where they have considerable expertise.
Educators should consider the associated with their teaching strategies. In the classroom, initial learning goals could be divided into a series of smaller units, such that knowledge acquisition is scaffolded. As students progress through a course, adjustments should be made to the material such that more application and problem-solving occur as more knowledge is acquired.
The medical education journey is both exciting and long. Students may enter medical school capable and prepared, but some may struggle due to . With the appropriate supports in place and using frameworks such as the SOLO taxonomy and expertise reversal effect, a proactive developmental approach can be created which fosters student personal and professional development and increased academic performance. Importantly, these same concepts can apply to clinical students who enter with little knowledge of clinical skills. Similarly, residents may enter as relative novices in specialty topics and faculty could be novices in new technologies. The SOLO taxonomy can be used to carefully consider how to scaffold learning in any situation that involves learning.
Jamie Bolar is a learning specialist at Saint Louis University School of Medicine.
Bolar has a Master of Science in Education. Bolar's areas of professional interest
include student wellness, supporting struggling learners, and program evaluation.
Bolar can be contacted via email.
Cynthia Nebel, Ph.D., is the director of Learning Services at Saint Louis University
School of Medicine. Nebel's areas of professional interest include the application
of cognitive psychological principles to self-directed learning, and the communication
of effective learning strategies. Nebel can be followed on , and through the .