Correlation between Stages of Learning & Stages of Skills Acquisition

According to Abraham Harold Maslow, American professor of psychology and creator of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, there are four stages of learning.

1.      Unconscious Incompetence- You don’t know that you don’t know.

2.      Conscious Incompetence- You know that you don’t know.

3.      Conscious Competence- You know that you know.

4.      Unconscious Competence-You don’t know that you know.

In her article titled “Learning a New Skill is Easier Said than Done”, Linda Adams, president of Gordon Training International, there are four stages in learning a new skill.

1.      Unconsciously unskilled-You are unaware that you are incompetent.

2.      Consciously unskilled-You know the extent of learning.

3.      Consciously skilled- You know how to do it.

4.      Unconsciously skilled- You do it naturally.

Correlating the stages of learning with stages of learning a new skill, it is clear that you are either unskilled or skilled and you are either unconscious or conscious about it. You have to know exactly at which stage of learning are in so that you will try to move up the ladder so to speak and then you can step into the realm of skills acquisition.