The application of learning styles theory and research continues to hold great promise for practitioners in both education and training as a potentially powerful mechanism for enabling pupils, students and trainees to manage their own learning better throughout their educational and working lives.

The selection of papers from the 10th Annual European Learning Styles Information Network Conference (held in July 2005 at the School of Management, University of Surrey) presented here raise a number of pertinent issues which are significant in the ongoing debate regarding the value of cognitive and learning styles in education and training practice.

Central to the debate is the question of how do practitioners (teachers and trainers) gain a working vocabulary around the concept of learning styles which may be incorporated into their day-to-day practice and thereby enhance the learning process?