Today I am climbing a ladder! I promise it is safe and I will not fall off...

The Conscious Competency Ladder

The  ladder of learning can be steep and other times quite flat. Today is the day that my students will be able to decide which rung they are standing on. The beautiful thing about adults in the classroom is that they will be happy to take responsibility for their learning and accept that they need to learn more. Sometimes the skill comes easily and other times it is a struggle. Usually when they discover where they are on the ladder they will make great strides to move to the next rung!

Noel Burch, an employee with Gordon Training International, developed the Conscious Competence Ladder in the 1970s. You can use it to manage your emotions during a potentially challenging learning process.The model has four learning levels:

1. Unconsciously unskilled (Unconsciously Incompetent) – we don't know that we don't have this skill, or that we need to learn it.
2. Consciously unskilled (Consciously Incompetent) – we know that we don't have this skill.
3. Consciously skilled (Consciously Competent) – we know that we have this skill.
4. Unconsciously skilled (Unconsciously Competent) – we don't know that we have this skill (it just seems easy).

The model can be a useful guide for your own learning, but you can also use it when you are coaching others, to guide them through the emotional ups and downs of acquiring new skills. What rung are you on in your learning?