Stages of Learning - Unconscious Incompetence to Unconscious Competence.

The conscious competence model explains the process and stages of learning a new skill (or behavior, ability, technique, etc.) It is most commonly known as the 'conscious competence learning model', but is sometimes called 'conscious competence ladder' or 'conscious competence matrix'. Whatever you call it, the 'conscious competence' model is a simple explanation of how we learn.

Stage 1 - 'unconscious incompetence'; that is when you don't even know what you don't know and can't do.

Stage 2 - 'conscious incompetence'; this is when you are aware of what to do and how to do it, but you just can't do it, or you are not very good at it

Stage 3 - 'conscious competence'; this is when you know how to do something and you can do very well but you still have to think about what you are doing.

Stage 4 - 'unconscious competence'; this is when you have developed a skill to the point that you can do it without even thinking about it.
At Pinecone Active Learning, we take students as young as three, and they are typically in Stage 1. Everything is new to them and they have certainly not developed any bad habits or ideas that they can’t achieve something. While these young ones may take lots of patience and repetition in the beginning, most move through Stage 2 to Stage 3 fairly quickly.

The majority of our incoming students start in Stage 2, and that is why they are coming to Pinecone – they know they need to improve their skills. Our individually tailored programs provide the daily practice at just the right points for each of these students to move from Stage 2 to Stage 3 and then to Stage 4. Students are not allowed to progress, in fact, until they have mastered the concepts and are able to perform “automatically – without even thinking about it.

”Once a student has achieved Stage 4, progress becomes faster and more motivating. It is fun to really understand how to do something quickly and easily and even help others. This self-confidence “greases the wheels” for further learning and progress. At Pinecone we like to say: “The further you go, the faster you go further!” The sky is the limit!