Everyone learns through a particular process.  We all go through very similar stages as we learn a new skill or task.  We struggle, we’re capable, then comfortable, complacent and maybe eventually a master.  I picked up on this pattern as an instructor while teaching a group of students.  I noticed that with each class my students repeated a very similar process as the last one.

Whenever I taught something, they would be absolutely clueless as to what I was saying.  They would learn the terms and go through the motions but still could not function on their own.  If I let them go with only my initial lesson, they would not have a clue and not be able to succeed.  Each time performing the task they would miss steps.

This is the struggle phase.  Here we see or hear something new and want to learn it.  However, since it is new, we do not have the motions or knowledge to make it through each step without messing up something.  In this phase we need guidance.  We need someone with much more experience to hold our hand and point out the missed steps.  We need them to get us to the capable stage.

This phase is the most critical of all phases because of the learning Law of Primacy.  It suggests that the way we initially learn something is how we accept it permanently until overwhelming evidence and practice help us to re-learn it.  Basically, the way you learned to tie your shoes was very specific.  Some learned the two loops and cross method and others learned the loop and wrap way.  You still tie your shoes the same way after all these years.  Have you ever tried to tie them differently?

That is why during the struggle phase, particular attention to detail is required.  If you or your student practices something incorrectly and manages to make it to the next phase, they will have a lot of trouble un-learning the process.

The next phase will be covered in my next article for this site, find out when by following www.twitter.com/joeylaw or www.twitter.com/WasabiMedia.

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