ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on deficiencies in the empirical literature, outlines challenges to the use of learning styles in a classroom, and applies social psychological theory to explain why the diagnosis of student learning styles may be limiting, rather than beneficial, to the educational goal of serving diversity. For educators, parents, and students themselves, a lack of empirical evidence in support of the educational effectiveness of learning styles may not seem like a matter of concern. The belief in the construct has produced thousands of publications, and the sheer volume of the literature may reinforce the idea that there must be something of value in the learning-styles model. A teacher reading a learning-style inventory may expect that a given student will do best when presented with material in a certain way. Learning-style language is often coupled with discussions of dealing with diversity in the classroom.
