ABSTRACT
The active mind through persistent repetition eventually becomes unaware of its own activity and the working of intelligence appears to be replaced by the operation of an automaton. Repetition may play two very different roles in the total learning process. It may help us to identify them more easily if we distinguish between the achievement process in learning—how things are learned for the first time—and the improvement process which is concerned with how we come to exercise our skills without conscious attention. The chapter suggests that a clear understanding of the difference between these two kinds of repetition can be of great help to the teacher of dull children in his practical work in the classroom. The point of this remark will become clearer as we consider the main varieties of learning-situation that are to be found in the classroom and attempt to discover from an analysis of actual learning-situations what happens when repetition is used legitimately or otherwise.
