Emotions in the Conscious Competence learning

Model

I have read the ongoing discussion and points of view especially with reference to the
5th stage. I have tried to integrate J M Fishers theory of the Process of Transition to give
the model some emotional life :

From unconscious incompetence when through a process of Awareness or Exposure the

person is exposed to a set of skills or a body of knowledge that makes his conscious of
his incompetence, the subject may experience the emotions of “anxiety”, “happiness”
and or “fear” depending on the extent of the desire that has caused this exposure. At
this stage it might even lead to “Denial”, as pointed out by Fisher.

Till the person makes a “commitment” to go through the process of mastery of skills
and knowledge, it is likely that he will encounter an emotional downslide by
experiencing “threats” to his previous learning, “guilt” for unlearning and possibly
“depression” at having to relearn. If the commitment arising out of the desire is not
strong, it could manifest in terms of “hostility” or “disillusionment.”

The ability to demonstrate the skill partially is the beginning of a “gradual acceptance”
and leading up to Conscious Competence by practice. A lack of discipline in this area
could compel the person to go through some of the emotional sequences of Phase 2.
However a mastery at this stage would create pathways for Unconscious Competence
and build enough confidence in the person to teach others the skill.

This is where the discussion gets interesting, where there is general acceptance that a
5th stage that needs to be considered and most writers have skirmished around the
reflective nature of this stage. If one was to look at the cognitive domain under Blooms
taxonomy and assign the behaviour descriptors to the quadrants in this model , then
“knowledge” and “comprehension” would most definitely come under the Conscious
Incompetence segment. “Application” in conscious competence quadrant and
“Analysis” in the Unconscious Competence end of the classification. However this
leaves out “ Synthesis” and “Evaluation”, which undoubtedly would have to fall into a
5th or possibly even a 6th domain respectively. Synthesis would represent what most
people opine is the 5th stage. This stage can be as simple or complex as the first stage-
unconscious incompetence, because of the element of “Denial” arising out of
confidence or overconfidence, hence “Evaluation” is definitely a step above the 5th
stage.

Why do I say that? Because one would need to move to a level of objective detachment
from subjective involvement which would be prevalent up to the synthesis stage which
would in effect form a part of the reflective stage. If at the higher end of the reflective
stage a person was able to objectively look at the creation or mastery and accept
through “Humility” that indeed innovation could throw up a better way of doing things,
he would move into the highest form of reflection, where the master would become
critical of even his own achievements. Two driving factors here would be acceptance of
the need for a larger good of all concerned and humility regarding the success of self.
He would then become a deliberate student in the loop once again to go through
exactly the same stages tough I would prefer to add deliberate/planned to the
innovation that applies to the model this time around.