Richard D. Solomon's Blog on Mentoring Jewish Students and Teachers: Introduction to Solomon's Six Types or Information/Questions as a web-based thinking skills construct

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Introduction to Solomon's Six Types or Information/Questions as a web-based thinking skills construct

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 begin our discussion 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.

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:

On the next post we will share an example of how Solomon’s Six Types of Information or Questions construct can be used to promote 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.