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�“Our role is not to enable students to reach their potential, or to meet their needs; our role is to find out what students can do, and make them exceed their potential and needs.”

‘Visible Learning for Teachers,’ Professor John Hattie

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Surface, Deep, and Transfer Learning

Transfer: Conditional knowledge

Deep: Procedural �knowledge

Surface: Declarative �knowledge

Knowing that . . .

Knowing how . . .

Learning foundational knowledge and skills and practicing these so we can retrieve them from long-term memory easily.

Learning how to use procedures and processes to connect ideas in the learning.

Creating an internal model or schema of the “pieces” and how they form the “whole.”

A dynamic process that requires learners to actively choose and evaluate strategies and seek feedback to enhance these adaptive skills.

Transfer can be both near �and far.

SURFACE

DEEP

TRANSFER

Key messages/script: Hattie and Donoghue contend that there are three levels of learning—surface, deep, and transfer—and each has a specific role in the learning process. (Briefly talk through the phases.)

Hattie also emphasizes that learning is a dynamic process that is not always linear (hence the arrows on either end of this continuum). A student can go from surface to deep and back to surface before going to transfer. Learning can be “fuzzy,” as these phases can also occur simultaneously. However, as “fuzzy” as learning can be, our mantra is to endeavor to provide opportunities for learners to move from surface to deep to transfer.

We also need to ensure that we don’t think that surface learning is “superficial”; rather it is the “critical content” and skills that we need to be able to go deeper. Think of the phrase “knowing that . . .” to describe the surface phase and “knowing how . . .” to describe the deep phase.

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Key Messages

1. We have an over-emphasis on surface knowing in our schools.

2. There is a “right time” for interventions and use of learning strategies.

3. The mantra should be “Surface to deep to transfer.”

4. Don’t underestimate how hard it is to transfer knowledge.

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The SOLO taxonomy redefined

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDXXV-mCLPg

No idea (equivalent to the prestructural level)
One idea (equivalent to the unistructural level)
Many ideas (equivalent to the multistructural level)
Relate (equivalent to the relational level)
Extend (equivalent to the extended abstract)

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Making thinking visible

SOLO verbs
One idea Identify Name
Many ideas Define Describe List
Relate Analyze Apply Explain cause and effect Relate Justify
Extend Create Hypothesize Generalize

Articulated through

Shared understanding of verbs

between pupils and teachers.

Suggested timing:

1 min

Key messages/script:

How do you know what somebody is thinking?

This is a particularly challenging question as often all that is observed is the outcome of a person’s thinking processes and not the different ideas, facts, knowledge or experiences that may have played a part in reaching that outcome. Combined with this is the difficulty many learners have in articulating their thinking (possibly because many do not have a framework in place in order to sequence/organise their thinking or a language to explain it).

If a student is not able to clearly articulate their thinking, then it is difficult to provide the most appropriate guidance to that individual to help resolve misunderstandings, correct errors, identify gaps and provide feedback that will help in establishing the next steps in their learning.

The SOLO taxonomy provides a framework that can greatly help the student and the teacher in organising thinking and then a language for articulating it.

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Model: creation of learning intentions

Concept/big idea: Alliances
Context: World War I
Learning intention: To understand why WWI started.
SOLO level	One	Many	Relate	Extend
SOLO verbs	Identify	List	Explain	Evaluate
Success criteria	Identify a key event that led to WW1.	List the key events that led to WWI.	Explain how these events led to WWI.	Evaluate which was the most significant cause of WWI.

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Primary 7

Jurassic Evolution: Genetics

Challenge yourself. Answer one of the columns.
Mild	Spicy	Hot	Very Hot
Tell me why a child might look like one, or both, of their parents.	Describe the difference between genotypes and phenotypes.	Explain how two long tailed dinosaurs could have short tailed offspring.	Create a punnett square showing all 4 possible outcomes of offspring from a brown eyed dinosaur (B) and a blue eyed dinosaur (b). Explain how the punnett square works.

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SOLO Taxonomy - Magnets

Mild	Medium	Spicy	Hot
Can you identify one magnetic and one non-magnetic material?	Can you describe magnets using the phrases north pole, south pole, force, attract and repel?	Can you explain how magnets exert a force that can attract or repel even when there is no contact between the magnet and metal?	Can you create a game involving magnets?

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Activity

Create your own learning intentions and success criteria:

Decide on the concept and the context.
Identify your learning intention.
Select the verb/s appropriate to the SOLO taxonomy.
Write criteria that includes the selected verb/s.

Careful planning of your staged success criteria using progression pathways, can help assess whether a pupil is above, on track or below in this concept.

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Creating learning intentions/criteria

Concept/big idea:
Context:
Learning intention:
SOLO level	One	Many	Relate	Extend
SOLO verbs
Criteria