The overall goal of this workshop is to introduce participants to factors that influence the student's capacity to learn and affect the way students approach the process of learning. Participants engage in three activities during this workshop. In the first activity, participants describe strategies they personally find most useful when learning a new task or body of information and then identify conditions and circumstances that make learning difficult. In the second activity, participants assess how their brain processes information using an exercise designed to measure a construct known as Field Dependence-Field Independence. This activity is designed to stimulate discussion of the different styles of cognitive functioning that exist among learners and give participants insight into the unique way their own brains process information. In the third activity, participants consider the emotional side of learning by assessing the evolution of learner self-concept during the professional development continuum and discussing the implications for teaching and learning. Factors that may produce a threatening and dysfunctional learning environment are identified, and participants analyze case studies to determine potential "atmospheric" problems that hinder student performance and teacher satisfaction.