trial-and-error learning
Improvement through mistakes
Trial-and-error learning is acquiring skill or knowledge by attempting something, failing, adjusting, and trying again.
The process assumes no prior instruction—you discover what works through experience: Through trial-and-error learning, the rat eventually found the lever that released food.
The phrase emphasizes learning from mistakes rather than from guidance.
- experimentationSystematic testing of ideas
- trial runPreliminary test attempt
- mistakesUnintended wrong actions
- practiceRepeated work toward mastery
- fumblingClumsy, uncoordinated handling
making mistakes · baby steps · discovery · repetition · feedback · adjustment · course correction · stumbling · hit or miss · attempt · failure · success · persistence · tinkering · guessing · process of elimination · iteration · adaptation
trial-and-error learningdeductive reasoning
Deriving specifics from generalities
logical deduction · intuitive leap · eureka moment · instinct · strategic planning
trials, trialed, trialing, errors, erring, erroneous, erroneously, learning, learner