As a learner I was always amazed by the arrogance of the instructor! It always seem as though they were never in the position of their students, understanding how it is to balance families, jobs and life around trying to further their education. I don't mean to say that an instructor should allow any and all things, however they should handle situations on a case by case basis. Having that "big head, I'm in charge" attitude helps no one.
Now that I've got that off my chest, let me address, the argument of adhering too much to learning styles. Any situation can get out of hand if the rules are not established up front. I believe assessing your student's learning style can only serve to foster the learning experience. The student must however have an open mind to be able to adapt their strategy to include other learning styles. I believe a strategy that includes some components of other learning styles does the most good for the learner in the long run. These are also my thoughts for the instructor as well. As an instructor we have to have different ways to explain information to the learner so they hit that AH-HA moment. To be an effective instructor we must adapt to our audience as much as we can, otherwise what is the point of an instructor whose learners don't learn. I have seen examples of instructors who love the subject that they are teaching but are unable to teach the subject. This is truly a loose-loose situation, no one gets anything from this type of relationship. Most often the learner has an immediate loss, possible having to put out additional money, time and effort to re-take a class with a different instructor. It happens too often to ignore! I don't advocate trying to address individually a lesson plan per student, but I believe because we are aware of the learning styles components that we can incorporate components of each to have a more comprehensive learning environment.
