Studies of offender profiles indicate that many offenders and most inmates are fundamentally different from the majority of other citizens. This difference should be viewed in developmental rather than absolute or genetic terms, such that the difference is subject to change. Although education does impact human development, educational effects are complex and do not necessarily yield behavioral change. The leap from knowing to doing involves the learner's will and emotions. Specific structural and pedagogical steps can maximize the possibility of prison education affecting inmates' knowing, wanting, and doing. Three components of such an educational process are critical thought or problemsolving, humane values or moral development, and praxis or participatory democracy. The effects of education for development include cognitive effects, motivational and emotional effects, and self-knowledge effects. 26 references.