Research shows that student motivation and performance improves when instruction is adapted to student learning preferences and styles. Educators have a responsibility to understand the diversity of their students and to present information in a variety of ways in order to accommodate all learners' preferences. Several learning styles theories have been proposed over the past 30 years, all of which concur on the diversity of learners and the need to address diversity in classroom instruction to improve student performance. The models include: the Theory of Multiple Intelligences, a cognitive model which suggests that each person possesses several intelligences; the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, which measures the affective dimension of learning and is based on the work of Jung; the Visual-Auditory-Kinesthetic Model, which focuses on the modes or senses through which people take in and process information; the VARK Learning Styles Inventory, which provides a perceptual learning style profile for each student; the Modality Strengths Model, which attests that observable modality strengths are more important in planning instruction than learners' modality preferences; and the Learning Styles Inventory, which encompasses instructional environment, emotionality, social preferences, and physiological uniqueness. (Contains 22 bibliographic references.) (SM)