Thursday, February 21, 2013

How to measure your progress when learning a new skill

By Leonid Green


Regardless of why you need to take a health and safety training course, you will have a variety of stages that you will need to cover over the course of your training. This is so that you are able to learn about the various aspects of health and safety and that you are prepared to use your training in a variety of situations.

There are also ways to measure how quickly you are learning a new skill. There is, for example, the Conscious-Competence Ladder, which was a model developed by a man called Noel Burch in the 1970s. This Conscious-Competence Ladder divides our stages of learning a new skill or process into four distinct stages, each one measuring how much we have mastered our chosen skill.

You can see how this model can be useful for those learning a new skill. You can use this model to help pinpoint how much of your training you have mastered, and then make the necessary adjustments to your training to help you achieve the mastery of your skill quicker.

Below you will find a more detailed explanation of what the four stages of the Conscious-Competence Ladder are, and these stages will be illustrated with an example of a person learning a computer programme.

The first stage of this model is called the Unconscious Incompetence stage, and this is the stage you are at when you cannot perform the desired skill. Using our example of learning a new computer programme, this stage relates to the stage you are at before you even log on to the computer. Trainers are likely to experience resistance from learners at this stage, as fear of the unknown deters many learners from acquiring a new skill.

Stage two is the Conscious Competence stage. This is the point that people reach when they actively realise that they know next to nothing about their skill. The computer programmer in our example would have problems with basic programming at this stage. It is common to make lots of errors at this point and there is often a sense that you will never master your skill.

Stage three is the stage the learner reaches when they start doing things right most of the time and stop getting things wrong the majority of the time. This stage can only be reached by those willing to put the time in to get better at their skill, although trainers can also help by providing learners with tips and tricks to help them progress. Our programmer will have reached stage three when he has read all the relevant instructions to programming and begins to apply them in his work.

Stage four is the final stage, and is achieved when the person has mastered their skill to the point they can perform it unconsciously or whilst doing something else. Even if the skill isn't done for long periods of time, the learner will be able to carry out the skill as if no time has passed.




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