The Learning Process and How to Use It

It is commonly recognized that different people have different learning styles. Seven have been identified. Furthermore, most people use a combination of two or more learning styles. The seven learning styles are as follows:

• Visual: Visual learners learn best using pictures, images, and other visual cues. Even the suggestion of a visual cue can be enough.

• Aural: This learning style makes use of sounds and songs, such as how we learn the alphabet.

• Verbal: Verbal learners will retain information by repeating it back, in either a spoken or written format. Essays and speeches both cater to a verbal learning style.

• Physical: Physical learning involves associating movements, gestures, and actions with the information. In effect, this is learning by doing.

• Logical: This is learning by reasoning. It is finding the answer by learning why it's the answer.

• Social: Social learners learn best in groups, using others to reinforce what they've learned.

• Solitary: A solitary learner typically does best learning on his/her own. Study groups are usually of little value to a solitary learner.

Most people are familiar enough with their own learning styles to find what works best for themselves. As a teacher, however, it's important to cater to as many learning styles as possible in each lesson. This not only teaches to the largest number of students, but further reinforces the lesson for those with multiple learning styles.

However, the ways that people learn can be simplified even more. Everyone goes through four stages in the learning process: unconscious incompetence, conscious incompetence, conscious competence, and unconscious competence. Let's go through these four stages in terms of learning to ride a bike, since most of us are familiar with that.

• Unconscious Incompetence: At this stage, you would not only have no knowledge of the subject you're learning, but you wouldn't even have any idea what you don't know. In our example, a child might look at someone riding a bicycle and think of it as an almost magical phenomenon that something could stay upright on only two wheels.

• Conscious Incompetence: After trying to learn a subject, you begin to become aware of the things you need to know. Most children learning to ride a bike experience this stage while using training wheels. They begin to understand that there is a trick to it, but still rely heavily on the training wheels.

• Conscious Competence: This is when you would begin to understand what you're learning. You still have to think about it, but you know what you're doing. When learning to ride a bike, this could be constantly adjusting the handlebars to stay upright, or it could be finding some way to get speed without starting from a completely stopped position. This is also the stage where you will see the classic occurrence of a parent letting go of the seat without the child's knowledge.

• Unconscious Competence: The final stage of learning is when you no longer have to think about it. In our example, you don't have to think about how to keep your bike upright. You just get on and ride. You may even no longer know how you didn't know to begin with.

Every time you learn something new, you will go through all four stages of this process. As a matter of fact, even babies will go through these stages when they learn how to walk, talk, and even eat. Teenagers go through this process when they learn to drive. Adults will even go through it when they start a new job. In addition, people are likely to move through each stage faster if they approach the subject using one of their favored learning styles.

My regular readers know that I usually write about autism-related topics. So, why am I writing about this? In part, it has to do with my fascination with how the human mind works. Even more, I feel that this knowledge can be used by multiple aspects of the autism community.

When I talk about learning styles, you're likely to think about teachers, so I'll start there. One thing I notice is that autistic people tend toward logical and solitary learning styles. I've never liked study groups, or even group activities in class. Many of my teachers have accommodated by allowing me to do group activities on my own, so that I only have to focus on learning the things that I don't know, without the distractions of everything everyone else needs to review, which has very rarely helped me. In addition, I've always felt that taking a logical approach and learning why the answers are what they are is a more concrete way to learn. If I forget, or if I want to know something related, I already have to tools to figure it out myself.

Additionally, it's often easier to work a person through the stages of the learning process by relating the subject to something they already know. For an autistic student, this is likely one of their interests. I realize that that may not be efficient in a large class. However, if you can get one-on-one time with the student, it may be more likely that you can help them through a difficult subject that way.

For parents, an understanding of the learning process may help in other ways. As you may know, some of the distinguishing characteristics of autism are social deficiencies and problems with independent living skills. Most people learn these almost automatically, so it's often easy to fill in the gaps. However, autistic people do not. Understanding that you must teach these things to an autistic child, starting from the unconscious incompetence stage, meaning that the child doesn't even know what he/she doesn't know, can help this process considerably. Don't forget to play on the logical learning style as much as possible.

From the autistic point of view, some of us are great self teachers. However, I'm constantly amazed that some of the autistic people I know have trouble getting started with the learning process, because they don't know anything about the subject. I admit that I struggle with this too sometimes. Getting past the unconscious incompetence stage can be difficult for specific-to-general learners like us. All I can really say is to dive in and the areas where you need to start will gradually become apparent.

Finally, a note for the self-advocate. Teaching others about autism is one of the cornerstones of autistic self-advocacy. Cater to as many different learning styles as you can. Logical should be easy for most of us, since we already think on a logical level. Being open about your autism and being the best example of autism you can be works on a visual level. Personal stories will help verbal learners. You can cater to physical learners by befriending and spending time with those who would be neurodiversity allies. Always keep in mind what stage in the learning process they are in.

I hope this information helps you. Now, go start learning what you don't know and teaching what you do.