The Unified Learning Model: How Motivational, Cognitive, and Neurobiological Sciences Inform Best Teaching Practices

This is a book about how humans learn. Our focus is on classroom learning although the principles are, as the name of this book indicates, universal. We are concerned with learning from pre-school to post-graduate. We are concerned with most bu- ness, industrial and military training. We do not address how infants learn how to speak or walk, or how grown-ups improve their tennis swing. We do address all learning described by the word “thought”, as well as anything we might try to teach, or instruct in formal educational settings. In education, the words theory and model imply conjecture. In science, these same words imply something that is a testable explanation of phenomena able to predict outcomes of experiments. This book presents a model of learning that the authors offer in the sense of scientists rather than educators. Conjecture implies that information is incomplete, and so it surely is with human learning. On the other hand, we assert that more than enough is known to sustaina “scienti?c” model of learning. This book is not a review of the literature. Instead, it is a synthesis. Scholars and many teachers likely have heard much if not most or even all of the information we use to develop the uni?ed learning model. What you have not read before is a model putting the information together in just this way; this is the ?rst one.

This cutting-edge synthesis of ideas and concepts from the cognitive, motivation, and neurobiological sciences sets out a unique theory of learning that should be of interest to everyone from education practitioners to neuroscientists. The authors base their Unified Learning Model, or ULM, on three core principles. Firstly, that learning requires working memory allocation (attention). Second, that working memory’s capacity for allocation is affected by prior knowledge. And finally, that working memory allocation is directed by motivation. These three principles guide a complete model of learning that synthesizes what is known from research in brain function, cognition, and motivation.

This, then, is a book about how humans learn. Its focus is on classroom learning although the principles are, as the name of the book suggests, universal. The text’s scope covers learning from pre-school to post-graduate, as well as training in business, industrial and the military. It addresses all learning described by the word "thought", as well as anything we might try to teach, or instruct in formal educational settings.

The book presents a model of learning that the authors offer as scientists rather than educators. They assert that more than enough is known to sustain a "scientific" model of learning. Rather than being a mere review of the literature, this work is a synthesis. Many scholars and teachers will have heard much if not most or even all of the information used to develop the model. What they will not have come across is a model – designed to be both accessible and usable – that puts together the information in just this way.