The development of teaching in higher education towards a more learner-orientated model has been supported by the literature on individual learning differences and on learning styles in particular. This has contributed to the evolution of university pedagogy away from a medieval transmission model than runs counter to contemporary understanding of learning. However, rather than solving problems of classroom practice, recognition of student learning differences has amplified a number of tensions within the system that have not been adequately resolved in practical terms for academic staff. Such tensions complicate the professional lives of university teachers and as a consequence may lead to cycles of non-learning as teachers retreat towards the familiar transmission of content. A reconceptualisation of university pedagogy towards an expertise model allows the variation between complementary chains of practice and networks of understanding to be exploited as a positive characteristic of the learning experience. (Contains 3 figures.)