Teachers have preferred methods of teaching, and students have preferred methods of learning. Modern educational "folk wisdom" is that we should match the two for maximal effect. We all have our own agendas and tend to perform best when we are in our comfort zones, but teachers are urged to step out of their comfort zones to improve instructional quality.
I teach computer programming. A number of years ago I read a paper (written by a woman) on why there were so few women in the programming field. One of her conclusions was that women are culturally programmed to ask "Why?", whereas men are programmed to ask "How?" Since most computer programming instructors were men, course content presentations were gender biased, which at least in part contributed to the number of women in the field. This has helped me considerably in answering women's questions more satisfactorily even when the 'why' was not explicitly stated, but that was what motivated the questions. And on those rare occasions when a class has a majority of women, the whole tenor of the class changes regarding "why" versus "how" emphasis.
The point of learning styles is that individuals have preferred ways of learning. In some classes I assign readings, assign problems from the book, and test on each chapter. I other classes I assign readings, but problems are from other sources, and there are no tests on the book. Some students complain that I am not using the textbook, while others are totally OK with the arrangement.
I teach my design classes on a team-based approach, and share with students the Learning Pyramid from National Training Laboratories in Bethel, Maine. For readers not familiar with the pyramid, it posits the following retention rates:
5% for Lecture
10% for Reading
20% for Audio-Visual
30% for Demonstration
50% for Group Discussion
75% for Practice
90% for Teaching Others
When I pointed out that the pyramid noted there is only a 5% retention rate on materials presented by lecture, one of my students objected, claiming he had at least a 30% rate for lecture. Individuals vary in their preference for the different methods. There will be some students who prefer methods of instruction that have lower retention rates; they will be less in-synch with a class organized around the higher retention-rate methods.
Finally, it should be pointed out that career choices have differing skill sets and associated methods of learning. Students can have the wrong set of preferred styles to fit into a particular career choice. So instead of always adjusting to student preferred styles, it may be sometimes necessary for students to adjust to a different learning style to succeed in a particular career.
To conclude, I would say that both teachers and students sometimes need to step out of their comfort zone.
