Talk:Learning environment

Hands-on learning predates language?

The History section makes the claim that hands-on learning methods predate language. Such a surprising claim ought to be backed up with sources -- and I suspect even then the most that could be said is that hands-on teaching might be older than the evolution of sophisticated language. (In the broadest sense, yes, all animals engage in physical trial-and-error learning. But this article is about pedagogical methods.)

I was just going to delete that part of the sentence, but thought perhaps I'd leave it and give someone the chance to cite a source. I'm quite inexperienced at Wiki editing and wanted to err on the side of caution. Hery-Tep Medu (talk) 04:41, 22 April 2016 (UTC)

Hery-Tep Medu:
I appreciate your comment and for bringing it up for discussion. Perhaps the statement is too declaratory. While I couldn't find a direct reference to cite (beyond gestures predating language), the statement came from a what I thought was commonsense reasoning. I may have fallen into the trap of original research, but given what other articles claim as fact I thought I was on safe ground. Mea culpa. The statement was intended to reach back as far as possible into the origins of learning. Yes, trial and error learning occurs, but that is also part of modern day hands-on learning. Animals and humans teach/learn by watching others and mimicking; sometimes this is trial and error, other times it is direct copying and practice. What about revising the statement to something along the lines of: "Learning and instruction predate language, and occur even before children fully understand language, through gestures, tone of utterances, and hands-on mimicking and practice."  ? Architectsea (talk) 22:09, 24 April 2016 (UTC)