ABSTRACT
Not all learning problems have to do with learning. It is one thing not to follow some part of a lecture or understand an equation or know how to perform a particular skill. These are the kinds of problems inherent in learning, and indeed learning can be seen as the process of overcoming them. However, it is another thing to lose confidence, feel you are going round in circles, or to become alienated from the whole business of education. Learning is not just a matter of specifics; it also involves general factors such as motivation, energy level, self-esteem and a sense of identity, purpose and direction. Some of these may reflect changes outside the learning situation altogether: money worries, the breakdown of a relationship, drugs, problems at work, illness or the general shifts of priority and circumstance that may occur during adolescent or adult life. Students thus need guidance and support in both the narrower sense of help with particular difficulties and the broader sense of sustaining their general will to learn. Students with additional difficulties or problems, whether physical, psychological, linguistic or social, will need additional support.
