Learning To Walk Before You Can Run - The Hierarchy Of Learning

The levels of learning within the cognitive domain are considered to be hierarchical, which requires the lower levels of learning to take place before the higher level learning can take place.

In simple terms you must, walk before run. Learning must take place one step at a time. However, many students expect to go from A to Z without learning everything in the middle. For example, in auto body repair, students want to skip preparation, masking techniques, and singles color paint jobs and go straight to custom paint jobs. However, as experienced painters know, about 80+% of the quality and the finished product comes from proper preparation, not spraying techniques. If they can’t get the basics down pat, they will never become a good painter. Basics first; bells and whistles later…

Here is another example that can apply to this lesson. You can study a map of how to get from one city to another city. You can look at different maps, google it, or discuss routes with others. However, unless you get into your car and drive to the destination, you will still be at your origin. The same could be said for reading a book, like the Atkins Diet book. The knowledge is not going to make you skinny. You must apply the learned knowledge to advance to the next level of learning or result.

Knowledge alone is useless; however, you must first learn and comprehend the knowledge before you can apply, analyze, arrange and evaluate the information to achieve your desired result.

Therefore, in technical teaching, the basic lower skill levels should be learned and mastered before moving on to higher more technical levels.