Knowledge, skills and attitudes
Knowledge, skills and attitudes (KSA) are the internal capabilities a pilot (or instructor) draws on in order to display observable behaviours and meet performance criteria. Competencies are what you grade on the flight deck and in the simulator; KSA is what those competencies are built from. Effective performance needs an integrated range of KSA: not knowledge alone, not stick-and-rudder skill alone, and not professional attitude alone.
The flying instructor's classic aim is to change the trainee's knowledge, skills and attitude to a required standard in a defined time, more safely and efficiently than trial-and-error. EBT keeps that target but packages assessment as competencies and behavioural indicators so KSA show up where they matter: in behaviour under operational demand.
The three components (Doc 9868 Attachment B)
Knowledge
Specific information needed to develop and apply skills and attitudes: recall facts, identify concepts, apply rules or principles, solve problems, think creatively in the work context.
Types ICAO distinguishes:
| Type | Character | Example flavour |
|---|---|---|
| Declarative | Facts and raw data | Memory-item sequence; limitation numbers |
| Procedural | Contextualised if–then application | When this ECAM, do that flow |
| Strategic | Synthesis and resource allocation for decisions | Which option under time pressure |
| Adaptive | Generalisation, innovation when the book is thin | Novel combination of failures |
Knowledge is an outcome of learning, formal or informal. In the nine-competency set it is also graded as its own competency (KNO) when it surfaces as applied behaviour, not only as quiz answers.
Skills
An ability to perform an activity or action. Three types:
| Type | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Motor | Learned, voluntary movement for a goal-oriented task (manual flight path control, physical scan) |
| Cognitive | Mental skill in acquiring and using knowledge (reasoning, perception, intuition) |
| Metacognitive | Monitoring and directing one's own learning and performance ("thinking about thinking": planning the approach to a task, checking comprehension, evaluating progress) |
Attitudes
A persistent internal disposition that influences choice of action toward people, objects or events, and that can be learned. Attitudes have affective, cognitive and behavioural consequences. Demonstrating the "right" attitude means knowing how to be in a given context: professional bearing, openness to feedback, willingness to assert or to listen, commitment to standard operating procedures when they are inconvenient.
Attitude is rarely graded by confession; it is inferred from consistent behavioural patterns (facilitation and debrief are the tools that make those patterns discussable).
KSA, competencies and observable behaviour
KSA (internal) feeds competencies (integrated capability), which surface as observable behaviours, which carry the grade. The full assessment chain with observe, record, classify, evaluate (ORCE) and evidence-based training competency grading method (VENN) is on From competency to observable behaviour.
- Training plans and syllabi list tasks and underpinning KSA.
- Assessment of competence references the adapted competency model and performance criteria, not the syllabus checklist. Tasks are the vehicle; competencies are the assessed target.
- A weak grade on a competency is a signal to diagnose which KSA layer failed: missing declarative knowledge, undeveloped motor skill, brittle strategic knowledge under stress, or an attitude that blocks use of what the pilot already knows.
Facilitation is especially suited to attitude and insight; instruction (show and tell) remains appropriate when the gap is pure knowledge or a skill the trainee cannot yet discover. Doc 9995 notes facilitation is not only for poor performers or attitude work: it also consolidates effective behaviour by making the pilot articulate why it worked.
Instructor use
- When designing or adapting a lesson, ask what KSA the exercise must build, then which competencies and indicators will show that the KSA transferred.
- In diagnosis, separate "does not know" (knowledge), "cannot yet do" (skill), and "will not / does not choose to" (attitude). Remediation differs for each.
- Do not treat a knowledge quiz as a substitute for KNO-in-context or for the rest of the competency set.
- In airborne and simulator work, target all three registers every sortie: procedures and limits (knowledge), handling and scan (skill), discipline and crew posture (attitude).
- For instructor self-development, apply the same triad: instructional knowledge, delivery skill, and professional attitude toward the trainee and the standard.
Connections
- Core competencies. Integrated KSA expressed as the nine graded pilot capabilities (including KNO).
- Behavioural indicators. Observable surface of underlying KSA.
- From competency to observable behaviour. How internal capability becomes a defensible external grade.
- Learning theory. How adults acquire and transfer KSA.
- Teaching cognitive skills. Classroom craft that builds knowledge and understanding toward behaviour.
- Human behaviour in flight training. Affective conditions that block or enable KSA change.
- Bloom's taxonomy. Cognitive depth for knowledge objectives and questioning.
- Skill development model. Stages of skill acquisition toward automaticity.
- Facilitation. Primary technique for insight, self-analysis and attitude-level change in EBT debrief.
- Instruction versus facilitation. When show-and-tell beats discovery for a KSA gap.
- Evidence-based training. Develops competencies and underpinning KSA against operational evidence.
Sources
- Doc 9868, Part I Ch 2. Attachment B: full KSA definitions; training plan includes KSA; assessment uses competency model, not syllabus alone; integration and transfer of KSA as competency-based training and assessment (CBTA) benefits.
- Doc 9995, Part I Ch 7 (Conduct of evidence-based training). Competent performance requires integrated KSA; instructor role is to develop competencies and underpinning KSA; facilitation vs instruction aims (insight/attitude vs knowledge/skill transfer).
- 8.1 Introduction. Instructor aim: change knowledge, skills and attitude to standard in defined time.
- A4.D Core Competencies. Competencies combine technical and non-technical KSA; KNO as graded knowledge competency.
- A4.1.6 Competencies. Single competency set encompasses former technical and non-technical KSA.