If the materials that are available to the learner do not contain the necessary instructional components there will be a decrement in the acquisition of the desired knowledge and skill. That is, the learner may have all kinds of freedom to explore and construct their own meaning, but if the materials do not contain the necessary components they will still fail to acquire the desired knowledge or skill. Different kinds of information, presentation, practice, and learner guidance components are required for different kinds of learning goals. If the instructional components are inconsistent with the learning goals, or if the instructional components are missing or inadequate for the learning goals, the learning will diminish regardless of the learning styles of the student. However, learning style does make a difference within the learning components necessary for a given type of learning goal.
Intentional learners do well with open-ended exploratory environments with lots of learner control.
Performing and conforming learners require considerably more structure. I would still argue, however, that once a learner is engaged whether in a highly unstructured learning environment or a highly structured learning environment the content-focused strategies then become of primary importance and still take precedence over cognitive learner characteristics. This is obviously a considerable abbreviation of the position of Dr. Martinez and Dr. Bunderson, and interested readers might wish to contact them for more detail on their work. Dr. M. David Merrill is a professor of instructional technology at Utah State University. He has published widely on topics related to instructional design theory.