Are emergency mnemonics help(err)ful?

Anumber of midwifery programmes that I have been involved with offer an interesting session, early on in the course, in which students undertake one or more exercises designed to help them identify their individual learning style and/or preferred ways of knowing. In theory, this enables the future midwife to gain knowledge of their personal idiosyncrasies and learning preferences, which can be really helpful given the enormity of the educational journey on which they are embarking. In reality, the nature of teaching complex subjects to ever-larger cohorts of students with increasingly limited staff and resources means there may be little opportunity to accommodate different learning preferences throughout the three or four years that follow. However, many lecturers do their best to include a variety of different approaches and these sessions do at least afford the student the opportunity to gain self-knowledge.