Today I’m going to talk about the hierarchy of competence, which is often visualized as a pyramid with four stages of learning. The goal of the learner is to complete each stage and move to the next without skipping anything in the previous stage. And the ultimate goal, of course, is to climb up to the top and reach stage four.
By the way, this is the updated version of a post I wrote a while ago. But now, for those of you who learn better by watching or listening, I have included a video version as well.
Learning stages
Now let’s go step-by-step over each of the stages.
1. Unconscious incompetence
The first stage is called Unconscious Incompetence. This is the lowest level of the pyramid. When we are at this stage, we don’t realize our ignorance. In other words, we don’t know what we don’t know.
People are usually at this stage in the very beginning when they start learning something new – a sport, a language, or any other new skill. During this stage, we make many mistakes, but we are completely unaware of them because we are beginners and we don’t know any better. But the moment when someone points out the mistakes we make, or we become aware of them in any other way, we enter stage number two, which is Conscious Incompetence.
2. Conscious incompetence
Reaching this second stage means that we’ve made the transition from complete beginners to the intermediate stage of learning. Here we start being aware of the mistakes we make – maybe with the help of a teacher, or maybe on our own. But the point is that in this stage we realize that there is a lot we still don’t know. We start consciously working to improve and to eliminate the mistakes we make and we enter the next stage, which is Conscious Competence.
3. Conscious competence
Now we are at stage number three. In this stage, we have a strong proficiency in our chosen topic. For example, if you’ve been learning English for a while and you don’t make many mistakes anymore, you have probably reached the Conscious Competence stage. But while we don’t make the mistakes we used to make, we still need to focus and use a lot of mental effort. In other words, we remember what used to be confusing, we know how to make it right, but it still takes a certain amount of mental energy to perform at a high level. However, if we keep repeating long enough the skill we have acquired, it eventually becomes automatic and we enter the last stage of learning – and this is stage number four – Unconscious Competence.
4. Unconscious competence
In this stage, we are officially masters in the skill. Not only have we built a high level of proficiency, but we do it so effortlessly that we don’t have to think about it anymore. At this stage, we’ve built muscle memory and the skill has become automatic. Reaching this stage is the ultimate goal of every learner because performing the skill, for example speaking in English, is now easy and painless.
But the challenges on the road to reaching Unconscious Competence seem so hard that many people give up when they are still in stage two or three.
Bumps on the road to the unconscious competence stage
When it comes to becoming fluent in English, I’ve seen students who want to jump through stages two and three too quickly and this impatience doesn’t serve them well. When they enter stage two and start realizing that they make mistakes, many of them get discouraged and frustrated. This in turn slows them down because when they are frustrated, they feel less motivated. And when they are less motivated, they don’t pay attention to important details.
According to recent studies, attention and motivation are crucial in determining the capacity of the working memory you can have. In a nutshell, the more attention your brain can give to a task, the more working memory you have. But if you start beating yourself over the mistakes you make, you are unable to focus on learning. In such cases it’s important to let go of your inner critic and trust that mistakes are a normal part of the learning process.
When students reach stage three – the Conscious Competence stage – they don’t make the mistakes they made during stage two – the Conscious Incompetence stage. But because they still have to think about the correct form and focus on not making these mistakes, they often feel tired and sometimes prefer not to speak at all. But this stage can’t be skipped because it’s an essential part of the road to the higher stage – the Unconscious Competence.
Reaching unconscious competence is not the end
Now let’s talk about what happens after we reach stage number four. Although having reached this stage means that we are able to perform our skills automatically, there is still a risk of slipping back into a previous stage. For example, when we are under a great amount of pressure, we can start doubting our abilities and overthink everything we do. This leads to what scientists call “choking.” Choking under pressure is caused by stress, worry, and anxiety, and leads to underperformance in the most important moment.
For instance, imagine you had studied for an exam, but you are so anxious right before it that you panic and forget some of the key points that you’d learned.
Here is another scenario: you are a talented baseball player (By the way, you can choose any sport) and you have a chance to play for a world-class team. You know that this team’s coach is watching you play and he will make his decision based on what he sees at this very moment. You want to perform at your best and you start paying attention to every single move you make. But because you start overthinking, you regress to a lower learning stage. Suddenly, you feel like a beginner again and you start making mistakes you haven’t made for a long time. In other words, you choke.
Switching between conscious and unconscious competence
But you might ask: If reaching the Unconscious Competence stage means that we have acquired the desired skills, how do we keep learning?
Well, regressing to stage three – the Conscious Competence – is not always bad. It’s actually important as long as it’s done in a controlled fashion. Stepping back from what you have learned to do automatically and being able to analyze it, allows you to improve your skills. This is how you are able to correct anything that needs correction and become even better.
But this needs to happen AFTER your performance, NOT DURING. It’s crucial to be able to remain at stage four during the most important moments like exams, presentations in English, job interviews, etc.
The ability to remain at the Unconscious Competence stage in key moments requires many hours of practice and repetition. Also, learning what physically happens in your brain could help you control your thoughts better. But just remember that there are no shortcuts. Be patient, do the work, don’t overthink, and keep going.
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By the way, do you know what stage you are at when it comes to your English? Let me know in the comments below.
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