Conscious / competence learning matrix

The progression is from quadrant 1 through 2 and 3 to 4. It is not possible to jump stages. For some skills, especially advanced ones, people can regress to previous stages, particularly from 4 to 3, or from 3 to 2, if they fail to practise and exercise their new skills. A person regressing from 4, back through 3, to 2, will need to develop again through 3 to achieve stage 4 - unconscious competence again.

1. unconscious incompetence
   the person is not aware of the existence or relevance of the skill area
   the person is not aware that they have a particular deficiency in the area concerned
   the person might deny the relevance or usefulness of the new skill
   the person must become conscious of their incompetence before development of the new skill or learning can begin the aim of the trainee or learner and the trainer or teacher is to move the person into the 'conscious competence' stage, by demonstrating the skill or ability and the benefit that it will bring to the person's effectiveness
2. conscious incompetence
   the person becomes aware of the existence and relevance of the skill
   the person is therefore also aware of their deficiency in this area, ideally by attempting or trying to use the skill
   the person realises that by improving their skill or ability in this area their effectiveness will improve
   ideally the person has a measure of the extent of their deficiency in the relevant skill, and a measure of what level of skill is required for their own competence
   the person ideally makes a commitment to learn and practice the new skill, and to move to the 'conscious competence' stage
3. conscious competence
   the person achieves 'conscious competence' in a skill when they can perform it reliably at will
   the person will need to concentrate and think in order to perform the skill
   the person can perform the skill without assistance
   the person will not reliably perform the skill unless thinking about it - the skill is not yet 'second nature' or 'automatic'
   the person should be able to demonstrate the skill to another, but is unlikely to be able to teach it well to another person
   the person should ideally continue to practise the new skill, and if appropriate commit to becoming 'unconsciously competent' at the new skill
   practise is the singlemost effective way to move from stage 3 to 4
4. unconscious competence
   the skill becomes so practised that it enters the unconscious parts of the brain - it becomes 'second nature'
   common examples are driving, sports activities, typing, manual dexterity tasks, listening and communicating
   it becomes possible for certain skills to be performed while doing something else, for example, knitting while reading a book
   the person might now be able to teach others in the skill concerned, although after some time of being unconsciously competent the person might actually have difficulty in explaining exactly how they do it - the skill has become largely instinctual this arguably gives rise to the need for long-standing unconscious competence to be checked periodically against new standards