AEmulatio, imitatio and mimesis in tertiary education

Emulation, imitation and mimicry are fundamental processes by which all children, adolescents and adults learn new skills, attitudes and behaviour throughout their lives. However, these basic processes seem to have been ignored or forgotten by most tertiary educational researchers. Most educationists believe that children develop through stages by using observation, and play. Children become expert mimics and learn how to speak, walk, and socialize by the time they are ready for school. In the first few years of school children learn by copying, rote learning and emulation of their teachers and peers, but as they progress, the importance of copying diminishes and may be penalized. At the tertiary level, emulation of scholarly writing styles, jargon and formats is always rewarded. This paper will use evaluation, observation and personal case studies in order to argue the value of these overlooked teaching techniques. It highlights academic ambivalence to plagiarism, and concludes the rhetoric about elearning to be disingenuous. This paper asks educationists to rethink their pedagogy around mimicry, imitation, and emulation.