Trial and error is commonly referred to as which type of learning?

Trial and error is most accurately associated with discovery learning. This type of learning encourages learners to explore, experiment, and draw conclusions based on their experiences. In discovery learning, individuals engage actively with materials and situations, testing hypotheses and learning through the process of making mistakes and finding solutions. This method fosters critical thinking and problem-solving skills, allowing learners to gain deeper insights by discovering information on their own rather than merely receiving instructions.

While the other concepts like formal learning, adaptive learning, and incidental learning have their own unique characteristics in educational contexts, they do not align as closely with the process of trial and error as discovery learning does. Formal learning typically involves structured educational experiences, adaptive learning focuses on customizing the learning experience to the individual's needs, and incidental learning refers to unintentional or unintended learning experiences that happen as a byproduct of another activity. Therefore, discovery learning is the most fitting classification for the trial and error approach.