Awareness of the need for more effective instruction for heterogeneous groups of students has resulted in the development of the "mastery learning" model through which students are provided with the additional time necessary to achieve mastery of the content to be learned. The mastery learning model does not, however, provide a conceptual framework through which teachers can make decisions about the alternative instructional methodologies to offer each student. A second type of learning theory is known as "learning styles." A variety of models have been developed, all of which are based on theories of cognitive style. The combination of a learning styles model and the mastery learning concept holds great promise for improved programs that can provide for the learning styles of the learners. A need exists, however, for content specification. In vocational education, the competency-based vocational education (CBVE) model provides the content specification required for the implementation of an effective, success-oriented program. Several such programs have been implemented in vocational-technical institutions around the country. (Two such programs are in White Bear Lake, Minnesota and in Appleton, Wisconsin.) Both of these programs involve assessment of learning styles through computerized educational cognitive-style mapping of students and matching them with alternative instructional methodologies prescribed by the resulting cognitive map.