4 Levels of Learning

Recently I had a conversation with a friend about how people learn, and whether they can learn new skills at all. We came across the psychology model of the 4 levels of learning. It’s a model that describes how people progress through different stages to learn a new skill.

The basic idea is that initially, the learner is not at all aware of a blind spot. As they gain awareness of their incompetence, they acquire a new skill and consciously use it until they master the skill to use it afterward unconsciously. It is entirely integrated into their skill set and has not to be thought through.

In detail:

Unconscious Incompetence

Before 1994 nobody knew the internet or its benefits. Nobody was aware of the benefits and threats of the internet. Neither did anybody know how to use it. It was a complete cultural blind spot.

The people were unaware that information and knowledge could be transmitted in ways we nowadays use daily without a second thought.

This is the stage of not being aware of not knowing. It can be mind-altering to discover blind spots in the own consciousness. The movie matrix is all about moving from the stage of being unconsciously incompetent to the next stage of: