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Thirty to fifty percent of the students registered in introductory biology in a community college where I teach can be expected to drop or fail the course. Most of them express the desire to learn. They expect high grades, but are unable to function in a way that will allow them to earn the grades they say they want. They are excessively absent and late, forget books and assignments, do not participate in classroom discussion. They talk or are otherwise occupied during lectures, act bored, tired or uninterested, or they sleep. Modification of content taught in the conventional way yields the same results.
Studies indicate that most learning difficulties are engendered by emotional conflicts within the learner which may arise in response to the teacher, the learning situation or the emotional significance of learning in the learner's personal life (Pearson, 1954; Love and Strean, 1963; Ekstein and Motto, 1969; Hill, 1971; Kirman, 1977). Difficulties also result from cultural deprivation, with consequent lack of impulse control and ability to learn (Lustman, 1970).
Reports (Kornrich, 1965) show that the majority of underachievers have the intelligence necessary to fulfill their educational requirements and that interference in intellectual learning results from emotional factors which render them unready to learn. Underachievers