heuristic

This is one of those words which is so significant that I wish to include it in this glossary.

According to the on line Oxford Dictionary, it means enabling others to learn something for themselves ... which is a bit like what Life does for us, including letting us learn things 'the hard way', if that is what we so choose (see 'negative learning'). More generically, we all have different learning styles - the failure to understand that is probably one key to many of the disputes around education that politicians have (another is differing views on outcome, and ruling over all is how much money is available, and how much of that will be allocated to education).