Climbing The Learning Ladder Can Be Stressful

Understanding why your learners may be getting anxious!

The learning ladder is my term for this model. I've also seen it described as a learning curve or a cycle. The principle is the same whichever form you prefer.

The idea is that, when you learn ( especially a skill ), you go through 4 stages. These are:

• unconscious incompetence
• conscious incompetence
• conscious competence
• unconscious competence

Unconscious incompetence

This means that you can't do something but you're not aware of it at the moment.

For example, I run Train the Trainer courses amongst other things. When people first come along, they may be unaware of certain techniques they can use or of certain things they are doing which make them less effective than they might be.

Conscious incompetence

At this point, the person becomes aware that they are doing something less effectively than they might. In the Train the Trainer example, they might realise that they should be trying to make their training interactive and not a presentation or lecture. However, at this stage, they don't yet know exactly how to do it.

Conscious competence

Now they have practised the skill and they can do it to a certain level. But they really have to concentrate and think about it because it's new to them.

So, when people are learning to be better trainers, they go through a period where they have to really think about getting the learners involved, about their eye contact, about asking questions, all sorts of things.

Unconscious competence

At this point, people are doing things without having to think about them. The new skills are becoming ingrained and almost automatic.

Of course, you are going up this ladder all the time. There are some skills which you have developed to the extent that you can do things without thinking about them at all.

There will be others where you are still at the stage of having to concentrate and others where you just know that you're not very good at something, but you don't yet know how to improve or you haven't had much practice.

One feature of moving up this ladder is that you may experience some stress or anxiety at different levels, specifically the conscious ones.

When you become aware that you need to develop a skill ( conscious incompetence ) it is reasonable that you may then feel some anxiety because you weren't previously aware of this ( you were unconscious! )

And when you start to practise the skill and reach the level where you can do it, but you have to concentrate, that can also be a stressful time. If you want to see this, watch someone who has just started learning to drive.

If you train other people, you need to remember this. As they learn, they may experience a lot of stress while they go through the conscious incompetence and conscious competence stages. This is normal and you can help by pointing this out to them. Tell them about the learning ladder and discuss where they are on it.

Also, if you design skills training, see how far you are taking people.

If you make people aware that they need to develop skills, raising their consciousness, does your training then give them the opportunity to practise these to the level of unconscious competence or only conscious competence? Often it will be the latter, as full skills development will probably only take place after the course as they get more experience.

In that case, you will be leaving some learners in a state of anxiety and, again, you can help by pointing out that you understand this and that it is part of the learning experience.

Actually, some skills courses only take people to the conscious incompetence stage. These are what you might call " consciousness raising " courses where you might be introducing some new ideas or techniques to people but not giving them a chance to practice at all. I do run some of these myself.

They are not ideal, for obvious reasons, but sometimes people want a course to give them new ideas and the numbers involved or the length of time won't allow for practice.

If you do anything similar, you have to accept that you are not developing skills, just knowledge. The skills will only be developed if and when the learners try out the new ideas for themselves.

And, again, the training may increase stress levels in some people. They may even begin to doubt their ability and lose confidence, so you need to be very careful how you put your ideas across and how you handle the emotional state of the learners.

I think this is a useful model to help explain the stages people go through when they learn new skills and I think it is something which trainers should make learners aware of to help them understand both the stages of development they will pass through and the emotional impact that this will have on them.

www.transformyourtraining.com is the website for trainers who want to be outstanding. You can get information to help you design and deliver training which is engaging, interactive, memorable and effective. Visit www.transformyourtraining.com