Abstract:
'Learning styles' has become one of the mantras that are regularly recited as necessary to
ensure success in teaching and learning in VET in Australia. It is clearly important that
the learning needs of individual learners are addressed a much as possible. Yet often
this particular mantra would appear to be yet another means of beating vocational educators
over the head and blaming them for failure to cater to special learning needs that may have their
origins in ineffective earlier schooling. It is argued that assumptions that learning styles exist and
must be catered for may be no more than lack of understanding about how individuals engage in
effective learning. Many students and teacher know nothing about cognitive and metacognitive
strategies and processes that need to be adopted for long term learning to occur. It is also
argued that vocational education has long been seen as the dumping ground for the non-academic
and that the problems encountered in this area cannot be simply overcome by reciting the
mantra of meeting learning style needs.
