Sometimes barriers such as time, attitudes toward learning, and programs that ignore best practices in adult learning block internal motivation. The Science of Adult Learning The learning experience should be enjoyable. When adults feel positive about a situation, endorphins are released, making them feel good and open to learning, and dopamine stimulates the prefrontal cortex keeping them alert and likely to remember the learning. Professional development that begins with a message of “You teachers have failed your kids, let us teach you the right way to do this job,” won't work. Negative feelings (including the feeling of having been forced to attend a PD) cause the hormone cortisol to enter the bloodstream. This catapults the brain into survival mode and shifts the brain's focus from learning to managing stress. Instead of learning, the brain remembers the pressure and registers Parkinson's disease as unpleasant. A climate of “fear of failure” encourages survival behaviors, not learning behaviors, and promotes patterned, routine, and procedure-oriented responses. Past experiences e