As an expert in your field, you are in the advanced stage of learning. You have a rich understanding of the knowledge and skills in your field, using the knowledge and skills to achieve a high level of performance. However, rapidly shifting application of the knowledge and skills in your field plus competition causes you to know that becoming complacent in your learning will lead to lower performance. You want to continue performing at a high level; the only way to do this is by continually learning.
As you continue in the advanced stage, how do you learn?
This guide will give you ideas in two categories:
Developing more depth of your (mental) models for concepts in the complex set of knowledge and skills.
Handling challenges in the learning process.
The challenge in the advanced stage comes from integrating new knowledge and skills into your existing models for concepts while maintaining a high level of performance. This guide will help you understand how to integrate knowledge and skills into your models for concepts while handling challenges in the learning process — continuing your learning in the advanced stage!
Note: As you read this article, please think about a complex set of knowledge and skills that you are in the advanced stage of learning. Anytime you see the words “knowledge,” “skill,” or “concept,” think about your specific learning. This article is written for any type of learning, but you will get more out of the article by thinking about the information in the context of your learning.
Developing Models for Concepts in the Advanced Stage
During the beginning and intermediate stages of learning, you developed mental models for concepts in the complex set of knowledge and skills.
[This is the third article in a series about learning at different stages. If you have not read the article on learning in the beginning stage or learning in the intermediate stage, go read those articles — then come back here.]
Every piece of information in complex set of knowledge and skills are encoded and organized into mental models for concepts. In the intermediate stage, gathering and organizing information into models for concepts came from four ideas:
Idea #1: Use available resources — but be selective about your resources.
Idea #2: Find common traits between resources — but focus on differences between resources.
Idea #3: Organize the information — but create “ideal examples” for common scenarios.
Idea #4: Make and test predictions through practice and performance — but toggle between parts and the whole.
These four ideas continue when learning in the advanced stage — with more depth in each idea.
Idea #1: Use available resources and be selective about your resources — but be the creator of high-quality resources.
As you transitioned through the beginning and intermediate stages of learning, you developed a deep understanding of the foundational and secondary models for concepts in your field. You created these models for concepts by comparing and contrasting resources, eventually learning from the best set of available resources. To continue learning in the advanced stage, become a creator of high-quality resources. Creating and sharing your knowledge and skills with others will make you think about the foundational and secondary models for concepts in different ways, helping your make new and interesting connections between models for concepts. As you integrate the connections into your models for concepts, you can maintain your high level of performance and continue learning.
Idea #2: Find similarities and differences between resources — but explain the similarities and differences.
While progressing through the beginning and intermediate stages of learning, you focused on finding similarities and differences between resources. The similarities and differences helped you develop an intuition for the patterns and non-patterns in the knowledge and skills, allowing you to recognize typical or special cases when presented with new resources. To continue learning in the advanced stage, explain the similarities and differences between resources. To those still in the beginning or intermediate stage, resources can be confusing; by explaining the similarities and differences between resources, you will become an authority on the resources in your field. In addition, judging subtle similarities and differences sharpens your models for concepts, helping you perform at a high level and continue learning.
Idea #3: Organize the information and create “ideal examples” for common scenarios — but take each scenario as a unique event.
Through learning in the beginning and intermediate stages of learning, you organized information and created ideal examples for common scenarios. Organizing information and understanding common scenarios helped you quickly recognize patterns; however, not all scenarios fit the ideal examples. To continue learning in the advanced stage, take each scenario as a unique event. Although the scenario may closely match an ideal example, the scenario will have subtle differences. Noticing the subtle differences and using the differences to positively impact your performance is the hallmark of an advanced learner, continuing your high level of performance and learning.
Idea #4: Make and test predictions through practice and performance, toggling between parts and the whole — but continue to push yourself beyond your current level of understanding.
When practicing and performing in the beginning and intermediate stages of learning, you predicted outcomes for individual parts and the whole of models for concepts. This process helped you understand how the individual parts of the model and the whole model worked separately and together, giving you information about the quality of your models for concepts. To continue learning in the advanced stage, push yourself beyond your current level of understanding. Although you may feel embarrassed by not understanding, you must continue to be in situations where you do not have all the answers. These situations allow you to test your models for concepts in new ways, helping you know whether or not the information and skills in the models for concepts produce positive outcomes. Failing in practice or performance — and assessing why and how you failed — is learning, boosting you to a higher level of performance.
The Learning Process in the Advanced Stage
During the beginning and intermediate stages of learning, you experienced challenges. These challenges helped you progress through the beginning and intermediate stages, providing feedback on your models for concepts and performance. To persevere through the intermediate stage of learning, you used these four ideas:
Idea #1: Know that you will get overwhelmed — but being overwhelmed will happen less with more learning.
Idea #2: Check your performance state — but push yourself into more challenging performances.
Idea #3: Make a high-quality practice plan — but ensure that every practice session has a purpose.
Idea #4: Perform the models for concepts at regular intervals — but track information about your performances.
These four ideas continue when learning in the advanced stage — with more depth in each idea.
Idea #1: Know that you will get overwhelmed and this will happen less with more learning — but if you feel overwhelmed, get back to the basics.
As you transitioned through the beginning and intermediate stages of learning, there were performances where you felt overwhelmed. Being overwhelmed was expected because you did not have enough knowledge and skills in your models for concepts. To continue learning in the advanced stage, challenge yourself to be in situations where you might become overwhelmed; if you feel overwhelmed, get back to the basics. Becoming overwhelmed changes your performance state from responsive to reactive, causing you to enter the fight/flee/freeze mode. Entering this mode makes you lose access to the knowledge and skills in your models for concepts, decreasing your level of performance. Getting back to the basics during moments of being overwhelmed takes you out of the fight/flee/freeze mode and resets your body and brain, allowing you to access the knowledge and skills in your models for concepts and returning you to the responsive performance state. Becoming overwhelmed is a challenging part of the learning process; however, meeting the challenge by working through the moments of being overwhelmed will lead to a continued high level of performance.
Idea #2: Check your performance state and push yourself into more challenging performances — but get into the responsive state for every performance.
While progressing through the beginning and intermediate stages of learning, you had some performances in the reactive state and some in the responsive state. Developing the knowledge and skills in your models for concepts gave you confidence, allowing you to be in the responsive performance state most of the time. To continue learning in the advanced stage, get into the responsive performance state for every performance. No matter how challenging or overwhelming the situation, the goal for every performance is to be in the responsive state; even if you fail at a task, getting back to or staying in the responsive state will help you understand why and how you failed. This understanding will allow you to update the knowledge and skills in your models for concepts, having a high level of performance in the next situation.
Idea #3: Make a high-quality practice plan and ensure every practice session has a purpose — but use data to fine-tune the practice plan.
When practicing and performing in the beginning and intermediate stages of learning, you made a high-quality practice plan to ensure every practice session had a purpose. This allowed you to test and refine the knowledge and skills in your models for concepts and progress to the advanced stage. To continue learning in the advanced stage, use data to fine-tune the practice plan. Each practice session will give you information about the knowledge and skills in your models for concepts; use this information to adjust parts or all of the next practice session. Continually taking data and modifying the practice plan helps you continue to learn, leading to a continued high level of performance.
Idea #4: Perform models for concepts at regular intervals and track information about your performances — but use the tracked information to focus on details within the performances.
During performances in the beginning and intermediate stages of learning, you used the knowledge and skills in the models for concepts and tracked information about your performances. Information from the performances — both the performance state and outcomes from the knowledge and skills — became more in-depth as you moved from the beginning stage to the intermediate stage, leading you to a solid understanding of your performances. To continue learning in the advanced stage, use the tracked information to focus on details within the performances. Although focusing on the details of the knowledge and skills in your models for concepts during a performance is challenging, the ability to focus is what separates a merely good performance from a great performance. Increasing your focus is a crucial skill in the learning process; by mastering the skill of focusing, you will continue to learn and have a high level of performance.
Summary
Although you have reached the advanced stage of learning, becoming complacent will eventually lead to a lower level of performance. Use the ideas in this guide to integrate new information into the knowledge and skills of your models for concepts and successfully handle challenges in the learning process — leading to continued learning and higher levels of performance!
Next Actions
Now that you know have a guide for learning in the advanced stage, here are some questions to consider:
In what areas are you in the advanced stage of learning?
How can you test and update the knowledge and skills in your models for concepts?
How can you lean into the challenges in the learning process, using the challenges to learn?
Let me know your answers to any of these questions by completing a message in the "About" section of this website; I would love to hear from you!
Comments