What is required to successfully learn something new? Some may say a teacher. Others may say a will to learn. And still, others might say natural skills. The last few weeks I’ve begun pondering this question much more closely. Scientifically there is a process to how a person’s brain learns new information. However, the success of a learning experience changes quite a bit from person to person. Here are a few important things I’ve learned that best promote successful learning. Foremost, a student must feel safe and comfortable in their learning environment. When students feel “a sense of belonging in an intellectual community it helps students interpret setbacks as a natural part of learning, and not as a personal deficit that sets them apart.” (Schwartz 2014) If a student does not feel safe in a classroom, they will then be less open to learning in the first place. There are many ways to create a comfortable classroom for students, one-way researchers suggest is to provide a cultura