Personality, social skills and intellectual development are just some of the key factors that influence how pupils learn and achieve differently from one another. Each child responds individually to their specific needs and environment, and the extent of that outcome can often be linked to external factors as pupils are naturally influenced by a variety of different constraints. These factors that are not concrete and will change and alter throughout an adolescent's development, as Piaget (Piaget 1970) believed that the mind changes and functions in different ways at different stages, so do the conditions that enhance and limit progress. Furthermore, these constraints can have both a beneficial and detrimental effect on pupils' learning abilities, often and the most extreme examples of these constraints are the most influential. Physical, intellectual, emotional and social development; gender and ethnicity, play the most significant roles in determining the outcomes and success of the individual pupils we teach and it is vital that as teachers we are aware of and can accommodate these factors to enable them to succeed to the best of their ability. Vygotsky believed that social and cultural interaction and involvement influence the development of our thinking processes (Vygotsky 1929 cited in Mooney 2000) indicating that the environment and adults with whom we interact as children directly influence our ability to learn, therefore suggesting that the Ethnicity and social class can not only enhance adolescents' learning but perhaps also hinder their progress. Social deprivation and financial instability can hinder a pupil's development as there may be less emphasis on education as an important need in working class families...... middle of paper ......0et%20al .pdf [Accessed 10 Dec 2010] Kearsley, G.[nd] Learning Conditions (R. Gagne) [online]. 1st ed. United States: theory into practice. Available from: http://tip.psychology.org/gagne.html [Accessed November 20, 2010] Kearsley, G.[nd] Social Development Theory (L. Vygotsky) [online]. 1st ed. United States: theory into practice. Available from: http://tip.psychology.org/vygotsky.html [Accessed 20 November 2010] Kirkby, E. (2003) How can we address the problem of children's academic underachievement? [online] 1st ed. UK: Teacher research. Available from: http://www.teacherresearch.net/tr_ekundachboys.htm. [Accessed 31 December 2010] McLeod, S. (2007) Vygotsky's Theory of Social Development [online]. 1st ed. UK: Simply Psychology. Available from: http://www.simplypsychology.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/vygotsky.html. [Accessed November 20 2010]