As society becomes more individualized in production techniques and the college-aged population becomes more diverse, education must adjust to help the individual cope with a world full of rapid change. Recent research has opened new doors to understanding how individuals learn, and this understanding should be used to develop programs and instructional methods that will lead to individual growth and creativity and will focus on the affective dimensions of learning. Research on the development and specialization of the brain indicates that traditional middle-class students and traditional edcuational programs tend to be left-hemisphere oriented, while non-traditional students, especially those from urban and poverty areas, tend to be right-hemisphere preferenced. For these students, who excel at holistic and spatial functions and for whom the emotional dimensions of learning are more important than cognitive dimensions, new teaching methods and utilitarian, relevant, multi-sensory, and cross-disciplinary curricula should be developed. Particular care should be used in shaping developmental education. In contrast to currently used models of developmental education which mix regular and remedial education, a full-fledged program is intensive and holistic, focusing on affective-sensory as well as cognitive learning, and containing courses in integrated communication skills, developmental math, and study, survival, and coping skills. (AYC)