At a conference of developmental educators today, I learned something from one of the speakers. If a person is a novice — a student was given as the example — that person could be considered “unconsciously incompetent.” If a person is an expert — a professor was given as the example — that person could be considered “unconsciously competent.”
Not having heard this pairing of “unconscious” with variants of competence before, I looked them up in a web search. These phrases are used commonly, in more fields than higher education. (Laparoscopy is one.)
And while I do not want to be treated, should it ever come to that, by an inexperienced laparoscopist, I’ve always found it fun to be a novice, and to teach them. Not unconscious, not incompetent. More like conscious, and on our way to somewhere we haven’t yet reached.
I'm Jane Kokernak, a writer who teaches college students, gardens, makes things, and putters around. Here I blog about all that and sometimes digress; favorite people make an occasional appearance, too. Send e-mail to jane dot kokernak @ gmail dot com.
[...] 27th, 2007 by jelizabeth Since writing the “Wide eyed” post on novices, I’ve been seeing references to newness everywhere. (Is my unconscious attention [...]