Four Stages of Learning

Presented by Rev. Irby Johnson, CPA, M. Div, D.D.

Four Stages of Learning

A model about how we learn. 

Learning can be said to take place in four stages:

Four Stages

• I. Unconscious Incompetence• II. Conscious incompetence• III. Conscious Competence• IV. Unconscious competence

I. Unconscious IncompetenceBlissful ignorance. We are not

aware that we don’t know something.We don't know what we don't know.

II Conscious incompetence

• We discover a skill we wish to learn - driving a car, riding a bikeWe have a desire to learn. Often this means not succeeding at first. This is learning; unfortunately, in our culture it is often labelled 'failure'. We feel uncomfortable.We know there is something we want to know, but we know that we do not yet know it.

III Conscious Competence

• We acquire the skill. We have become consciously competent. Our conscious mind can only cope with a small number of new bits of information at any one time.We have to concentrate on what we need to do.We can do it, but it is difficult and stressful.

IV. Unconscious competence

• Lastly, we blend the skills together and they become habits - we can then do them while our mind is on other things.We have reached the stage of unconscious competence.Our confidence and ability have peaked, we no longer have to concentrate on what we do; this is the start of the next learning curve

IV Unconscious competence (continued)

• We do it without consciously thinking about how we do it. It is almost instinctive.

• Anyone who has truly mastered an art or discipline has reached this stage. They make it appear so easy that we think “O’ anybody can do that”. Then we try to duplicate what we have witnessed by a “Master” and we are embarrassed.

No matter how skilled someone seems to be, they have gone through, at a minimum, these four stages.

In different areas of our life we will be at different stages on different learning curves.

Four Stages of Learning

Presented by Rev. Irby Johnson, CPA, M. Div, D.D.