Pashler and his colleagues attempt to answer where this concept comes from before they apply it to any student group. "The popularity and prevalence of the learning-style approach may, of course, be a product of its success in fostering learning and instruction.
Assessing the extent to which there is evidence that the approach does indeed foster learning." (Pashler, 2009, 105) They go on to point out how most approach's on learning styles are dependent on a classifications. Every theory is based on the concept that people are classifiable. Everyone has a specific place on the learning strategic spectrum. "The assumption that people actually cluster into distinct groups," (Pashler, 2009, 105) is one that is widely recognized and agreed upon in the study of learning styles. According to Pashler there is an underlying appeal to discovering out what kind of person one is, therefore the study of what learning style you are is one that would be deeply appealing and eternally satisfying. Along with appealing to the concept "that people are concerned that they, and their children, be seen and treated by educators as unique individuals." (Pashler, 2009, 107) Basically saying that learning style studies are satisfying ,multiple basic human needs. That it is natural for us to want to fit in and at the same time stand out.
Discussion.
"In our discussion of styles thus far, we have focused on preferences for how information would be presented to a person rather then on the notion of the person having different ability to process one kind of information or another. . However, the notion of learning style as a set of preferences and the notion of learning styles as a specific aptitude are very closely intertwined in many discussions of learning styles." (Pashler, 2009, 109) So how do we apply this to Education though? According to Stewart in his article "Learning-Style-Appropriate Instruction: Planning, Implementing, Evaluating" there are five essential questions to ask, in order to properly apply learning styles to better some ones education.
