When did you last support someone develop a skill or master something new?
Did you think about the stages they would go through? What related skills, strengths, or knowledge they already have? What obstacles might arise? How might you support them to learn?
Whether it’s a new subject, skill or task being learnt, facilitators, managers and trainers have a responsibility to provide guidance and the conditions that helps them achieve the goal.
We can however take it all for granted. Like scattering seeds hoping they’ll germinate and grow without providing adequate soil, water, or sunlight.
As a facilitator and trainer I find preparing the ground has many advantages for those learning and myself. Two models I use are the Conscious Competence Learning Theory (CCLT) and the Learning Zones.
Why I love them
The Learning Zones acknowledges what might go on internally for learners. Whilst the CCLT speaks to the stages and process of learning.
Both are easy to explain.
They provide useful insight, raise awareness, and create common language.
They normalise the process and learners responses to learning.
They prompt facilitators and trainers to consider where learners are on their journey and how to support them.
Conscious Competence Learning Theory
The CCLT, sometimes referred to as steps or ladder, maps the learning process. Having an awareness of this helps both learners and facilitators notice where people are and why they might be struggling. It provides a framework to aid reflection, insight and reassurance.
The model consists of four steps that combines two elements;
Consciousness - How aware are you of what you know and can do.
Competence - Your ability. How well you can do the task or use the skill.
The four steps are: (see illustration)
1. Unconscious Incompetence – you don’t know what you don’t know
2. Conscious Incompetence – you are aware of what you don’t know
3. Conscious Competence – you know that you can do it now and consciously practice
4. Unconscious Competence – you can do it without thinking about it
Let’s walk through as a learner.
Step 1: Unconscious Incompetence
You need to learn a new skill but don’t know if you can do it. You’re possibly not aware of the skill, its relevance and benefits or your level of ability.
If you are unaware (unconscious) of the skill and have low or no ability (incompetent) you probably won’t see its benefit or the need for acquiring it.
It’s essential facilitators and trainers help learners become aware of the skill and its value. This step is important to pay attention to. Facilitators, trainers, managers often wrongly assume learners are aware and are on step two, Conscious Incompetence, when they are not.
We need to communicate and check. Demonstrating, debriefing, assessing and highlighting the benefits are ways this can be done.
Step 2: Conscious Incompetence
Here you are aware of what you don’t know and aren’t able to do yet. You see its relevance and commit to learn.
Through applying the skill, reflecting and receiving feedback, you gain a measure of how competent you are. With practise your ability and effectiveness improves.
This stage requires you to persist and practise. In developing a new skill you move from the unknown to the known where it becomes familiar. There’s lots of trial and error, you may feel awkward, clunky or frustrated. Confidence can fluctuate. You might feel discouraged as you realise there is more to it. This is normal and encouragement is needed.
Step 3: Conscious Competence
As you continue to practise and apply your new skill your confidence, ability and awareness grows. You transition from clunky and awkward to capable and smooth.
You perform the skill reliably without assistance, yet still focus, paying conscious attention to what you are doing. Through application and reflection you hone the skill and can demonstrate it to another.
As you progress up the steps you may well experience Aha’s and ‘pennies dropping into place’.
Step 4: Unconscious Competence
It is with continued practice and reflection that the new skill becomes automated. Some say it’s a place of mastery where you no longer need to pay conscious effort to use a skill.
It’s in your “bones”. You can demonstrate and describe using the skill, and could teach it to others.
Once unconscious competence is reached the danger is you might become complacent as you are no longer paying conscious attention and actively stop learning or developing. One way to guard against this is to reflect on your skill actively and regularly.
For some skills you never reach this final step. Instead circling between steps two and three as the arrows show. This actually can be desirable as you stay conscious to nauance and breadth involved in using the skill.
Learning Zones
I often combine sharing the CCLT and Learning Zones.
The value of the Learning Zones is it shines a light on our psychological process, acknowledging our mindset, attitude and feelings that can be present as we learn.
The model has three zones.
The Comfort zone is where you're able to do things. It maps to the Unconscious Competence step where you've already automated and gained a level of competence. Using the skill feels very comfortable as it's known and familiar.
Stepping into the learning zone can feel awkward or uncomfortable as you become aware of what you don’t know. Here those clumsy, slightly embarrassed feelings can arise. You might notice a little fear and trepidation, resistance even to take risks because you don't want to be seen as lacking.
Equally, as you step over that threshold into the learning zone you might relish it with a sense of ‘bring it on, let me experiment’. Knowing that making mistakes will aid your learning. This can feel exciting, exhilerating. You feel eager. These are different responses to the same situation.
It is useful to acknowledge these feelings as both are normal. Learners who are aware of this can then welcome these feelings as evidence of learning.
Carol Dweck refers to these states as either a growth or fixed mindset. Engaging in with this knowledge allows you to be more open to taking risks and if you mess up you know there is learning to be gained.
As Chris Bertrum says “When you’re in a growth mindset, what that means is you choose to see struggle and challenge as an opportunity for growth and learning.”
Finally, the panic zone. Here you become overwhelmed, especially if you’re asked to learn too much too quickly. There's too much information and you feel at sea, unable to cope resulting in panic or stress. When this happens learning drops and even stops as you go into survival mode.
I’ve found sharing these two models helps people have compassion for themselves and others. When you know ‘not doing it perfectly’ creates such rich learning it takes the pressure off. So whether you’re learning or supporting others notice and acknowledge the learning journey and accompanying feelings.
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Conscious Competence Learning Theory – origins are disputed as there is evidence it is thousands of years old. However in the 1970s Martin Broadwell, W Lewis Robinson and Noel Burch all separately worked on developing it.
The Learning Zones - based on Tom Sennenger.