There are four stages that mark one’s growth in competence — like a ladder of skill — according to the ‘conscious competence’ learning theory:
At any beginning, nobody knows what they’re doing.
We don’t know the skills that we don’t know, or that we need to learn them.
As rank beginners, we can look around, and then, we copy. We can copy without understanding. That’s what kids do when they start out to write, right?
This means we know that we don’t have these skills, but we can practice so we can get better at them. Once we get copying down, we refine through practice and trial-and-error.
Going back to learning how to write, it means hours of inculcating fine motor skills and muscle memory practice until we arrive at a recognizable, readable script. In the process, we learn to associate what we’re doing to the meaning behind the activity.
For example, in learning to write we trace letters and numbers in the process of learning to connect the scribbles on the paper to the understanding that precise scribbles mean letters and numbers, and letters in a particular order can spell out the word ‘cat’ or ‘box’ or ‘ball’, or numbers and other things, like ‘5 apples.’
We know that we have these skills, and we can deploy them at will.
At this level, what we practice can become habit. Going back to hand-writing, whether we’re used to printing block letters, or can write in cursive, we can write easily and fluidly.
We put so much practice in this skill, it just comes naturally to us. At this point, we don’t have to think much about hand-writing and can write legibly while doing yet another task. And at this level, we can teach others.
Going to another example: Can you remember learning how to walk?
Conscious memory may help you there, although science and personal experience can clash as to how much toddlers and babies can remember of their earliest years. But from where you are now, can you remember?
If you can’t, have you ever witnessed a very young child learning how to walk?
They quiver and shake after they’ve hauled themselves up, hanging on for dear life to the side of the crib, or clutching their parent’s fingers. They keep trying: they overbalance, under-balance, fall forward and back and sideways and collapse — and then take their the first toddling steps.
Give it a month of watching them speed-crawl, and before you know it, they’re walking. They don’t care how goofy they look or how many times they fall down –as soon as the tears dry, they keep going. They’re purely focused on themselves.
Now what’s the difference between learning things as a kid and learning as an adult?
Sadly enough, sometimes it’s harder: We’ve been exposed to more. We’ve lived longer, and all our experiences affect the way we see ourselves, and how we see the world. So maybe there’s embarrassment at the thought of not-knowing something other people do. Or shame at the thought of, “I should’ve known this already.” Continue reading Step By Step Into A New Year: Setting The Stages For New Growth