Students use trial and error in elementary grades when learning basic principles of mathematics and probability. Teachers give students the opportunity to use dice, coins or other easily manipulated items so they can experiment directly. Heuristic learning depends on an individual's ability to engage directly with a problem and find the solution through trial and error. Watching a teacher figure probability with dice is only the first part of the lesson. The most important part is when a student takes the dice herself and discovers the probabilities that lie within a simple roll of the dice.
Teachers encourage educated guessing when teaching scientific subjects. Students trained to recognize chemical and biological processes and features can usually make a well-informed guess as to what happens under experimental conditions. However, heuristic learning allows students to perform experiments after making an educated guess or "hypothesis." The experiment will then prove their educated guess wrong or right, further informing other experiments and experiential learning experiences. In this way, educated guessing provides the opportunity for further learning as students delve deeper into areas of study.
A "rule of thumb" is a proven rule that people come to accept as common knowledge. For example, all students accept that 2+2=4 because their teachers teach it to them as an established fact. In heuristic learning, students may place two objects beside two more objects to see for themselves the new number they have created. From there, it must be taken as true that 2-2=0, because students use the previously established fact to take away all objects and arrive at zero. The principle of taking an established rule and applying it to a question is the same no matter the complexity of the question.
Heuristic learning allows human beings to build upon the knowledge of their predecessors. It is perhaps significant that the Greek word for discovery has come to signify all that is hands-on in modern classrooms. The ancient Greeks built a great foundation for knowledge, learning and educational institutions. Using heuristic learning methods all children begin at a similar place with no limit to the possibilities of their knowledge, experiences or skills.