Research findings indicate that many students fail to benefit from academic support services and courses. The paper discusses reasons why some students resist changing their academic behaviors and links the reasons to learning and motivation variables. The explanations for failure to change include: (1) students believe they can't change; (2) they don't want to change; (3) they don't know what to change, or (4) they don't know how to change. The authors describe an assignment in which students identify their own academic problems and conduct individual case studies based on a four-stage process for behavioral change: self-observation and evaluation, goal setting and strategic planning, strategy-implementation and monitoring, and strategic-outcome monitoring.