Congratulations! You are no longer a beginner — you have made it to the “messy middle” stage of learning. You have created foundational mental models and embraced the learning process, gaining confidence and competence with the complex set of knowledge and skills. You have bad days and good days when practicing and performing; sometimes you are completely lost in a new situation, but other times you know exactly what to do. You are sticking with your learning, working to move from the intermediate stage to the advanced stage.
As you progress through the intermediate stage, how do you continue to learn?
This guide will give you ideas in two categories:
Developing robust models for concepts in the complex set of knowledge and skills.
Handling challenges in the learning process.
The challenge in the intermediate stage comes from the large amount of experience needed to progress from the intermediate stage to the advanced stage. This guide will help you navigate these experiences, developing robust mental models for the complex set of knowledge and skills — progressing to the advanced stage!
Note: As you read this article, please think about a complex set of knowledge and skills that you are in the intermediate 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 Complex Set of Knowledge and Skills
During the beginning stage of learning, you began developing mental models for concepts in the complex set of knowledge and skills.
(This is the second article in a series of three articles about learning. If you have not read the first article in the series about how to learn in the beginning stage, go read that article — then come back here.)
Every piece of information in your knowledge and skills are encoded and organized into mental models for concepts. As a beginner, gathering and organizing basic information into (mental) models for concepts came from four ideas:
These four ideas continue when learning in the intermediate stage — with more depth in each idea.
Idea #1: Use available resources — but be selective about your resources.
As a beginner, your goal was to find resources about the complex set of knowledge and skills. As you found resources, you noticed that the quality between resources was different: Some resources gave poor information; other resources gave excellent information. In the intermediate stage, the goal is to be more selective about your resources — focusing on resources that give excellent information. By focusing on resources that give excellent information, you will have high-quality information to integrate into your models for concepts of the complex set of knowledge and skills. In addition, you will notice why the information from the poor resources is lacking; understanding why a resource is poor or excellent shows that you are learning. Using excellent resources — while rejecting poor resources — gives you better information in your models for concepts, helping you move from the intermediate stage to the advanced stage.
Idea #2: Find common traits between resources — but focus on differences between resources.
As a beginner, you found common traits between resources. The common traits gave you information about the important parts of the complex set of knowledge and skills, showing where to start your learning. In the intermediate stage, the focus is on the differences between the resources. Focusing on the differences between resources allows you to add nuance to the models for concepts, extending and linking the individual models into more complex models. Focusing on the differences also gives more opportunities to practice and perform, helping you figure out what works best in your context.
Idea #3: Organize the information — but create “ideal examples” for common scenarios.
As a beginner, you organized information into smaller and larger models for concepts in the complex set of knowledge and skills. You applied these models for concepts in practice and performance, with each practice session or performance showing the failure or success of the models for concepts. In the intermediate stage, the goal is to create “ideal examples” for typical scenarios. Every complex set of knowledge and skills has typical scenarios; these scenarios are the common patterns and if-then processes. Having ideal examples for typical scenarios allows you to use less working memory, giving your brain more space to notice and handle any subtle differences in the current context. The differences will be stored in the models for concepts, helping you handle more challenging parts of the complex set of knowledge and skills.
Idea #4: Make and test predictions through practice and performance — but toggle between parts and the whole.
As a beginner, you practiced and performed basic knowledge and skills. You made and tested predictions during the practice and performance, leading to confirmation or updating of your models for concepts. In the intermediate stage, the focus toggles between parts and the whole of the complex set of knowledge and skills. Working on the parts — the smaller models for concepts — helps to identify and correct any gaps in the smaller models for concepts; correcting any gaps is important because these smaller models for concepts form the foundation of the larger models for concepts. Working on the whole — the more complex models for concepts — helps to identify and correct any issues with the links between smaller models for concepts. Correcting issues with the links between models for concepts is important because many models for concepts work differently when tested individually than when tested together with other models for concepts. Toggling between these two types of practice and performance deepens and strengthens your models for concepts in the complex set of knowledge and skills, leading to robust learning!
The Learning Process
As a beginner, the learning process seemed challenging. However, you persevered through the beginning stage using these four ideas:
These four ideas continue when learning in the intermediate stage — with more depth in each idea.
Idea #1: Know that you will get overwhelmed — but being overwhelmed will happen less with more learning.
As a beginner, you often hit the limits of your knowledge and skills during practice and performance. Hitting your limits happened because the amount of information coming into your working memory was more than what your brain could handle; your brain could not handle much information because the knowledge and skills were loosely organized. In the intermediate stage, the goal is to organize information into more complex models for concepts — allowing you to be less overwhelmed by processing more information, more quickly. Organizing information into more complex models for concepts reduces the strain on your working memory: Instead of five simple models in your working memory, you can have five complex models. The amount of knowledge and skills in the complex models is much greater than in the simple models, so using the complex models reduces mistakes and time spent feeling overwhelmed. As you continue to organize the knowledge and skills into more complex models for concepts, you can process more information in an efficient way — leading to more learning and higher performance.
Idea #2: Check your performance state — but push yourself into more challenging performances.
As a beginner, your practice and performance with the complex topic or skill could easily surpass your knowledge and skills, causing difficult feelings about the learning. The way you handled these difficult feelings hurt or helped the learning process, but you persevered through the feelings and found ways to be comfortable in practice and performance. In the intermediate stage, the focus is continuing to push yourself into more challenging performances. Although there may be times when you want to be comfortable in your practice and performance, real learning happens as you continue to push your knowledge and skills through challenging practice and performances. Having challenging practice and performances makes you consider your performance state: Were you in angry, aggressive, and closed (Reactive Performance State) or calm, collected, and open (Responsive Performance State)? Reflecting on your performance state — and continuing to learn how to be in the Responsive Performance State — will help your practice and performances, leading to successful outcomes. (For a more in-depth look at performance states, please see the article titled Stuck in a Performance Plateau?.)
Idea #3: Make a high-quality practice plan — but ensure that every practice session has a purpose.
As a beginner, you made a high-quality practice plan for the basic models for concepts in the complex set of knowledge and skills. This practice plan helped you learn the basics, moving you from the beginning stage to the intermediate stage. In the intermediate stage, the goal is to ensure that every practice session has a purpose. You have gained knowledge and skills about the basic models, but you can now identify the strengths and weaknesses in your understanding of the models for concepts. By continuing a high-quality practice plan (self- or coach-created [1]) — with the added emphasis on the purpose of each practice session — you can correct your weaknesses and increase your strengths. In addition to creating and overall practice plan and purpose for each session, learning in the intermediate stage requires perseverance. There will be days when you do not want to practice, plus some sessions will feel bad while other sessions will feel good. These days are part of the learning experience; moving from the intermediate stage to the advanced stage requires a large amount of effort and time. (For a more in-depth look at practice, please see the article titled Stuck in a Performance Plateau?.)
Idea #4: Perform the models for concepts at regular intervals — but track information about your performances.
As a beginner, you performed the models for concepts at regular intervals. Using the models for concepts under the pressure of an outcome helped you understand the state of your models for concepts, showing you the strengths and weaknesses of the models for concepts. In the intermediate stage, the focus is tracking information about your performances. By continuing to perform your models for concepts under the pressure an outcome — tracking the feelings during the performance and results of the performance — you can get more detailed information about your models for concepts. Are you struggling with a basic model, which is limiting the outcome of your performances? Do you have a solid foundation of the basic models, but struggle to combine them into more complex models? Are you performing in the Reactive or Responsive Performance State more often? Knowing answers to these questions — plus many more questions specific to the complex set of knowledge and skills — helps with the entire learning process, leading you through the intermediate stage into the advanced stage.
Summary
The intermediate stage of learning requires you to deepen and strengthen the models for concepts in the complex set of knowledge and skills and pay attention to the learning process. By using the ideas in this guide — plus putting in the required time for learning — you can move from the intermediate stage to the advanced stage!
Next Actions
Now that you know have a guide for how to learn in the intermediate stage, here are some questions to consider:
How will you use the four ideas on models for concepts to deepen and strengthen your models?
How will you use the four ideas on the learning process to learn efficiently and effectively?
Are you willing to put in the time required to move from the intermediate stage to the advanced stage?
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!
Notes
[1] Coaches exist for many areas of life, from lifestyle and health to business to arts to athletics. One great resource is Coach.me — this website has coaches for many different parts of life.
References
Baddeley A. (1992). Working memory. Science (New York, N.Y.), 255(5044), 556–559. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1736359
Chin, C. (2021, April 27). Copying better: How to acquire the tacit knowledge of experts. Commonplace - The Commoncog Blog. Retrieved from https://commoncog.com/blog/how-to-learn-tacit-knowledge/
Godin, S. (2007). The dip. Portfolio.
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