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QWERTY® is the ultimate thinking tool that is at the very heart of what we do at
Got-A-Head®? It's a creative planning technique that can be used effectively in heaps of ways and over multiple disciplines.
As a thinking task, it is a vital way to keep your ultimate goal clearly fixed in view, while you explore all the possible ways to get there. It allows for imagination, creativity and lateral thinking to add value to what might otherwise be a fairly plebeian process. It's a way to devise a product that best fits your requirements or lets you determine the best process to achieve it. Along the way, you can investigate many other elements such as practical applications, facts to bear in mind, emotional response, and other people's views (which we help the Learner identify by providing a wide range of Forget-Me-Nots).
When it comes to other key areas, such as Memory, Observation or Reading Effectively, QWERTY® is a hugely useful first step. That is to say, it's not the solution you need in itself, but rather, it gets you to think about which strategies or techniques would work for particular requirements.
For instance, if we use QWERTY® for Memory, it is not there to help you memorise something directly - that's not its function. No, what it does is help you identify which memory techniques would be most effective for what it is you have to remember. Remembering French vocabulary would not be done the same way as remembering to bring home your homework or revising chemicals from the periodic table. A quick QWERTY® would establish the best process to adopt, saving you valuable time.
When you have an Observation task you need to know what it is you are looking for, trying to notice or waiting to appear. QWERTY® helps you identify what kind of Observation you need to do, and which strategies to adopt. Do you need to use a particular search pattern, use Memory techniques or Anticipation to identify likely places to see the object? When would be the most effective time to do so? Again, QWERTY® streamlines your thinking to make sure that your Observation is as effective as possible.
Reading Effectively relies on QWERTY® to help you select the best keywords for your search, or identify which techniques to use such as scanning, skimming or top and tailing. It gets you to think about which methods or sources (e.g. books, internet, primary sources) would give you what you need and which level on the What to Read? spectrum (easy/hard texts versus narrow/wide ones) best suits this particular enquiry.
In the fullness of time, we intend having a full collection of QWERTY® tasks done in a Wrap and Remember format, guiding you through the process (with blanks to put your own answers relevant to that particular activity). Keep an eye on our Resources page for them.