Examine what is actually being reinforced there and what is being extinguished through non-reinforcement. Most awarenesses are either marginally conscious or unconscious, and not only in learners. We don't have to assume a universal unconscious, as did the original Socratics. Previous reading, classroom exposures, and incidental contacts have equipped all students with a majority of the subject or skill or topic they are struggling to learn, to learn seemingly from scratch. If they can be brought aware of what they already know in the subject, whatever learning still remains to be done there integrates quickly and easily around this already-known core.
Untapped Resources Look at the floor.
Look at the little portion of the floor covered by your foot. Let that portion represent what's in your conscious focus. That is true for you, and it describes also each of your students. Even your lowliest students have genius resources untapped within them. Your most gifted students may be tapping a few more of their resources than the others are, but they, also, have nearly all of their resources offline, untapped.