The Goal of Learning

Ever notice a child learning to walk? They start by crawling and can get around fairly well. However, they notice other people walking and start to stand up, take a few steps and fall down. Crawling is a much faster way to go. However, a parent or adult will hold the child by the hand and support them while they take a few steps. Then they will let go of the hand and allow the child to take a few steps toward them, encouraging them with praise in their efforts. Even though there performance has decreased (it is faster at this point to crawl then to walk), with support, encouragement and guidance they continue applying what they have learned until they are able to walk more quickly than they crawl and eventually stop thinking about it altogether because walking is a natural motion for them now.


Learning to walk is great analogy of learning in general. It is something we have all done. in this post we will look at the process of learning from an angle that helps us see the goal of learning. The psychologist Abraham Maslow has identified four levels of learning. [While I would not recommend the whole of Maslow's teaching his insight at this point is simple enough and reflective of basic human experience.] We all progress through each level. First, unconscious incompetence - this is where a person is ignorant and does not even know that they are ignorant. they are unskilled and unconscious of it. The bumper sticker would be “we don't know - what we don't know!” The second level is conscious incompetence; this is where a person now knows they are ignorant of a subject. Hey are unskilled and conscious of it. The bumper sticker would be “we now realize that we have to learn something.” The third level is conscious competence; this is where a person has learned something, but they are consciously aware they are doing or not doing what they have learned. They have acquiring new skills and ways of seeing the world and are conscious of it. We have learned it and are trying to apply it. It seems difficult and unnatural but we continue anyway. The bumper sticker would be “been there and doing that.” The fourth level is unconscious competence; this is where a person becomes so competent of the learned behavior that they do it without being conscious they are doing it. They are skilled but are doing it unconsciously (without much willful thought. When we get to this level, we have done it so much it is now second nature to us and we don't even think about it anymore. No bumper sticker - you did not think to put one on.


Maslow's levels remind us the goal of all learning, especially when seen in light of God's goal of Christian education. The goal is the development of the character of Christ in our hearts and way of Christ in our lives. For the Christian church, facts are for transformation. The Information is for the purpose of changing the way we see the world and walk in it. So it follow, what the bible teaches give us a different way to do life. God's objective and the church's mission of education is to move the learner from not knowing a concept to knowing it so thoroughly that they do it without even thinking about it. In a secular teaching environment it is enough for the student to know 2+2=4, and in this case they have mastered the information. However, for the Christian we must go beyond mastery of the material. Mastery alone is not enough. Mastery must lead to digestion and digestion to transformation. We want to be self forgetful in such a way that our good deeds and wealth of knowledge is not easily recounted by us. We know it when we need it but we are not focusing on it. Self-forgetfulness helps inoculate us from the vice of self-righteousness whether it springs from our knowledge about God or our holiness of life. In the end, the goal of learning is the character of Christ.