AbstractThis article reviews critically the reviews and studies carried out under the broad rubric of aboriginal learning styles with the intent of assessing the utility of this approach for the study and practice of aboriginal education. It concludes that interactive learning style approaches have more to offer than cognitive based perspectives, particularly those that assume that aboriginal students have more‐or‐less fixed mental learning capacities. The former approach can be particularly useful when combined with classroom methods that are specifically geared to equip aboriginal students with the analytic and verbal skills which they need to get along in school and in the contemporary world.