Five Orders of Ignorance

• Zero Order Ignorance (0OI; Lack of Ignorance) – You know something and can apply that knowledge (Known Knowns).
• First Order Ignorance (1OI; Lack of Knowledge) – You don’t know something, but you know that you don’t know it (Known Unknowns).
• Second Order Ignorance (2OI;  Lack of Awareness) – You don’t know that you don’t know something (Unknown Unknowns).
• Third Order Ignorance (3OI; Lack of Process) – You don’t know how to find out what you don’t know.
• Fourth Order Ignorance (4OI; Meta-Ignorance) – You don’t know about the Five Orders of Ignorance – or that ignorance is structured at all.

Please cite this article as:
Davis, B., & Francis, K. (2025). “Five Orders of Ignorance” in Discourses on Learning in Education. https://learningdiscourses.com.