Richard D. Solomon's Blog on Mentoring Jewish Students and Teachers: Example of how Solomon’s Six Types of Information or Questions construct can be used to promote Judaic instruction and teacher training

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Example of how Solomon’s Six Types of Information or Questions construct can be used to promote Judaic instruction and teacher training

When mentoring our pre-service and in-service teachers we need to describe and model both research-based and clinically tested best practices, and demonstrate how these best practices can be applied in the real (i.e. physical) and virtual (i.e. online) classroom for both teaching and teacher training. The combination of face to face instruction in a physical setting and online learning is called blended learning. In this section of the blog we will describe how the internet can serve as a supplemental resource for instruction and the mentoring of pre-service and in-service Jewish educators. In this post we will discuss of how Solomon’s Six Types of Information or Questions can be used to promote skillful, creative and critical thinking in the Judaic Studies classroom and to mentor/train pre-service and in-service Jewish educators.

Assumption: The teacher or mentor teacher has a interactive white board (i.e. SMART Board, Promethean, etc.), a Tablet PC (also called a Slate or Blade), a computer presenter or computer with internet access attached to an LCD projector in the classroom. It would be ideal if students or mentees had access to their own laptop computers or Ipads. Given parental and school approval, and the development of specific guidelines, smartphones can be used to enhance instruction as well.

Note: Although the Six Types of Information/Questions cognitive construct can be applied in the Judaic Studies blended learning classroom, it can be also be used for training pre-service and in-service Jewish educators for professional or staff development. It is our hope that Jewish educators around the globe will form an online community of practice, a CoP, a group of people who share an interest, a craft, and/or a profession, to enhance the delivery of instruction and training of Jewish educators. For example, here is a CoP you might want to join.

Note: The Six Types of Information/Questions cognitive construct can be used in a face to face and virtual classroom.

In previous blog posts we have defined thinking skills and processes, creative thinking, critical thinking and Benjamin Blooms taxonomy of educational objectives. We have also shared creative and critical thinking tools developed by Dr. Donald J. Treffinger.

What is the Six Types of Information or Questions web-based cognitive construct?

Richard and Elaine Solomon created the Six Types of Information of Questions to Ask web-based construct. Like Dr. Frank Lyman’s Think-Trix, and Dr. Chuck Wiederhold’s Q-Matrix, this visual cueing framework prompts students to create questions related to six type of data: factual, conceptual, experiential, emotional, preferential and informed opinions. For more detailed elaboration see the images below:

To copy the above image, right-click on it.

For additional resources on the Six Types of Information or Questions to Ask refer to the sources listed below:

Below you will find an example of how Solomon’s Six Types of Information or Questions to Ask web-based construct can be used for both Judaic instruction and teacher training:

On the next post we will share Judaic examples of how the three web-based thinking constructs, Lyman’s Think-Trix, Wiederhold’s Q-Matrix and Solomon’s Six Types of Information/Question, can be applied in Judaic instruction and teacher training.

[1] Taken from Solomon, R.D. & Solomon, E.C. (1985). The handbook for the Fourth R: Relationship Skills. Columbia, MD: National Institute for Relationship Training, Inc.