Human beings have to learn a lot during their childhood and youth: how to walk, speak, write, and do mathematics; they learn to recognise connections, to cooperate with others, to plan, to form an opinion, to develop values and self-confidence. All these abilities are the necessary bases for survival in this world and many young people take them for granted - but this is not the case for all of them. Not for those who live in a society with inadequate educational opportunities. Neither those who have to face humbling and hurtful experiences in wars, refugee camps, in difficult family situations and who therefore cannot develop a basic confidence towards life.
The preconditions for learning differ, depending on the respective culture. But there is one thing they all have in common: they basically have to exist and they have to be coherent.
The present issue of FORUM discusses the preconditions that create an atmosphere beneficial for learning, the obstacles that impede constructive learning and how we can deal with them.