Maslow’s Hierarchy of Competence

Online education has prompted me to think about how humans learn. Abraham Maslow, known for his social experiments created a hierarchy of competence. In order to learn something, you have to go through these stages.

1. Unconscious Incompetence

The first challenge in learning is not knowing where to look for answers. At this stage, you have to absorb material related to a topic understand how things work.

2. Conscious Incompetence

After understanding how things work, you know what you need to learn. The resources you need to read and areas that need improvement become obvious.

3. Conscious Competence

At this stage, you have the skill but it isn’t natural yet. You need to reference information to make use of the skill.

4. Unconscious Competence

At this stage, the skill is a habit. You know what to do without thinking heavily.