I’ve heard various learning style theories advocated in public schools, teacher preparation programs, and college classrooms.  Pasher et al. (2009) make a compelling case that while learning preferences may exist, research has not supported the advantage of using different instructional strategies for these preferences.  Reading their article highlighted two key distinctions for me.  First, learning preferences should not be confused with learning aptitudes. The kind of information people prefer to receive is not necessarily the kind of information they remember most readily.  Pasher et al. demonstrated that there may be some need to vary the instructional context based on aptitude, although the studies they examined had mixed results.  In some cases, student achievement correlated with both aptitude and the amount of structure provided in the lesson, but in other cases, high aptitude students consistently outperformed low aptitude students regardless of the amount of structure.  At any rate, if a learning styles theory does exist, it appears that it would be more fruitful to target student abilities rather than student preferences.  Most commercial tests measure how students perceive they learn, and don’t systematically analyze how the students actually process information.  These tests may indeed be worthless.  There could be a place for tests targeting specific aptitudes, but more research needs to be conducted in this area as well.  Secondly, learning styles theories seem implicitly based on an either/or construct.  According to these theories, a person who is more verbal will learn more information if it is presented verbally rather than visually.  In reality, sensory registers work together to help people learn.  Even if someone is strongest in verbal ability, that person may also have well-developed visual ability.  Strength in one area does not necessitate weakness in another area.  As the lecture by Dr. Willingham pointed out, some kinds of information can only be appropriately presented in one modality.  Furthermore, students may benefit from receiving some kinds of information in mixed modalities.  Too narrow a focus on targeting information to a student’s highest ability could reduce overall learning by limiting the parts of the brain that can be employed to help that student process the information.  Much of the research indicates that an effective pedagogy can benefit most students, regardless of learning style.  There is room, though, for more research in this field.