06/12/2022
Four stages of learning a new skill
The model sets out four stages of learning: Unconscious Incompetence, Conscious Incompetence, Conscious Competence and finally Unconscious Competence.
The first stage, unconscious incompetence, defines a stage when you don’t know that you’re no good at something, or you don’t see the benefits of learning it. Think of a baby who doesn’t even know that there is such a thing as a bicycle, or a child who has no idea that there are languages other than their mother tongue or think of your first-day practicing jumping knees)
The second stage, conscious incompetence, is when you become aware that you don’t know something, or are not very good at a particular skill. This would be the child who sees other children riding bicycles. There is general agreement that this stage is absolutely crucial to learning: you have to realize that you’re not good at something, and that possessing the skill would help you, to give you the motivation to work to acquire it. This happens when you start observing others doing the high knees.
In the third stage, conscious competence, you have become able to do the skill, but you still have to think about it as you do it. Think here of a child who has successfully learnt to balance their bike, but still falls off if they aren’t looking at what they’re doing. You are doing the jumping knees slowly but steadily while putting efforts to concentrate on doing it right.
The final stage is unconscious competence. At this stage, you have become so good at the skill that you have hard-wired it into your brain, and it has become instinct.