Reply #20: Personally, I think "learning style" can take too much importance away from other issues.

[patrice]

It might be good to use "learning style" as more of a spring board (or perhaps more like "a carrot"), but getting too exclusive with it results in kids who can't read, "because they are kinetic learners" or kids who can't do basic math, "because they are non-linear thinkers". There needs to be a balance.

I was seeing "learning style" used as a cop-out in lesson planning when I taught. EVERYTHING was supposed to be fun and teachers were rewarded socially, by students and parents and, hence, by administrations, for doing lots of "learning style" stuff. The notion of an external standard of somesort, what used to be called a discipline, is gone. I couldn't take the pressure for requiring homework and other forms of academic discipline OF SENIORS in my areas (English & Psychology), so I got out of education. Personally, I think the abuse of concepts such as "learning style" and "co-operative learning" are (ONLY) part of what has ruined public education.