Click on the student to see the levels of learning competence and use
the play and pause buttons to hear an audio description.

Click on the levels to review the stages again

Level 1 – Unconscious Incompetence
(You Don’t Know that You Don’t Know)

At this level the learner is blissfully ignorant: They have a complete lack of knowledge and skills in the subject in question. On top of this, they are unaware of this lack of skill, and their confidence may therefore far exceed your abilities. Here the learners need honest feedback in order to progress.

Level 2 – Conscious Incompetence
(You Know that You Don’t Know)

At this level the learner finds that there are skills they need to learn, and they may be shocked to discover that there are others who are much more competent than they are. As they realise that their ability is limited, their confidence drops. They may go through an uncomfortable period as they learn these new skills when others are much more competent and successful than they are.  Here we need to create an action plan identify the student’s learning needs what the actions needed.

Level 3 – Conscious Competence
(You Know that You Know)

At this level the learner acquires new skills and knowledge. They put their learning into practice and they gain confidence in carrying out tasks or skills. They are aware of new skills and work on refining them. They are still concentrating on the performance of these activities, but are getting ever-more practice and experience, and these are becoming increasingly automatic. At this stage the learner needs continued feedback, encouragement, reinforcement and reward.

Level 4 – Unconscious Competence
(You Don’t Know that You Know – It Just Seems Easy!)

At this level their new skills have become habits and they perform the task without conscious effort and with automatic ease. This is the peak of a learner’s confidence and ability. At this stage we need to be alert for complacency breeding mistakes and failure to maintain competency.