To develop skills, it’s vital to get people to realise what they don’t know. However, it has been shown that ‘not knowing that you know’ is a dead end from the learning and teaching point of view. Let’s look at why.
There are two senses of knowing. The first is awareness of self, and the second is knowledge of the world. There are four possible combinations:
1. Not knowing you don’t know
The first possibility is that of being unaware that you don’t know something. This is the ‘ignorance is bliss’ state. Making people aware of their ignorance helps to develop motivation to learn, as long as you make it interesting and do not frighten them off.
2. Knowing you don’t know
This is an easy one. The move from ‘knowing that you don’t know’ to ‘knowing that you know’ is what most learning – and hence teaching – is all about.
3. Knowing and not knowing that you know
The interaction between knowing and not knowing that you know is more complex. There are two kinds of knowledge involved here:
- ‘Not knowing that you know’ or ‘unconscious competence’ is the highest stage of development and applies to skills like driving or knitting; the kind of thing you can ‘do without thinking’.
- The second is where people who have informally learned a great deal put themselves in the ‘knowing that they don’t know’ category because they have no accreditation for their learning.
This is the downside of our qualification-driven culture.
Employees must be encouraged to claim credit for what they already know and can do.
This is important, because if they do not give themselves credit for it, or are even unaware of knowing it, they will remain unaware of how they could move on from mere competence or proficiency to real expertise.
Also, if they do not know what they know, they may be unsure of their knowledge, and threatened by the prospect of moving on, which leads to a degree of resistance to new learning.
4. The problematic expert
This person knows that they know but does not know how they know – or cannot express it. Sometimes it’s because they do not want to appear a ‘smart-arse’.
Sometimes, though, they might claim that it is a matter of ‘not being able to put it into words’ or even, of a ‘hunch’. They may even be afraid of trying to express their expertise, for fear that their knowledge will be exposed as fragile.
The Bottom Line
Clearly we have to get people to realise what they don’t know. But it’s knowing that you know that’s most challenging from the learning and teaching perspective. The best position with potential for development, is that of knowing what you know.
