undergradly.
Major · Education

Learning Sciences is a research track, not a teaching license

Learning Sciences blends cognitive psychology, instructional design, and educational research methods. It prepares you to study how people learn and to design learning environments — not to run a K-12 classroom. Most career destinations expect a master’s or doctoral degree.

Schools offering
9
Annual completions
2,959
Typical degree level
Bachelor's
Median earnings (5yr)
$46k

About this major

Learning Sciences is an interdisciplinary education major that studies how people learn and how to design environments — classrooms, workplaces, software, museums — that help them learn better. The CIP definition pulls together cognitive aspects of the learner, instructional environment and materials, instructor preparation, socio-cultural and linguistic context, and assessment outcomes, with coursework in educational psychology, instructional design and technology, and the statistical design of educational research. It is not a teacher-licensure pathway. Students who want to run a K-12 classroom should look at named teacher-education majors with state-approved licensure tracks.

The major fits students who like reading research, running small studies, and arguing about why a lesson worked or didn’t. Strong candidates often combine an interest in psychology or cognitive science with curiosity about technology, curriculum, or organizational training. Comfort with statistics and qualitative coding helps; so does patience for ambiguous evidence about what works.

The field is unusually concentrated at the bachelor’s level. Federal data show 2,959 total Learning Sciences bachelor’s completions across nine institutions, but 2,871 of those — about 97 percent — come from Western Governors University’s competency-based online program. Traditional residential programs (Northwestern, University of Arizona, Point Park) graduate small cohorts with a different emphasis: research methods, learning theory, and faculty-led projects. Program quality and content vary considerably, so the institution you choose shapes the degree more than the major name does.

Section 3 · Careers

Where this major leads

Occupations most often associated with this major, from the federal BLS+O*NET crosswalk. Job-growth projections and median wages are national.

Occupation Median wage Job growth Typical education
Educational instruction and library workers, all other $48k +1.5% Bachelor's degree
Education teachers, postsecondary $72k +2.1% Doctoral or professional degree
Training and development managers $127k +5.8% Bachelor's degree
Social scientists and related workers, all other $100k -1.7% Bachelor's degree
Social sciences teachers, postsecondary, all other $75k +1.7% Doctoral or professional degree
Section 4 · Earnings

Earnings at a glance

Median graduate earnings from the federal College Scorecard, 5 and 10 years out.

Median 5-year earnings

$46k

Who this major is for

Good fit if you are drawn to questions like why one explanation lands and another doesn’t, why a piece of software helps some learners and confuses others, or how to measure whether a curriculum change actually changed anything. Comfort with research methods, statistics, and reading peer-reviewed studies is a green flag, as is interest in graduate study — most of the named careers in federal data expect a master’s or doctorate, and bachelor’s graduates often move directly into a master’s in instructional design, learning sciences, or educational psychology. Students who already know they want to build corporate training products, work in ed-tech, or run educational research will find the major’s breadth useful.

Reconsider if your goal is to be a licensed K-12 classroom teacher. Learning Sciences does not include the supervised student teaching, state exam preparation, or licensure paperwork that named teacher-education majors carry, and routing through it adds a post-baccalaureate licensure program later. Reconsider also if you want a clean bachelor’s-to-six-figure-job pipeline: median earnings five years out are $46,205, and the higher-paying destinations (training and development manager at $127K, postsecondary education teacher at $72K) generally require graduate degrees and several years of applied experience first.

Section 6 · Where to study

Top colleges for Learning Sciences

Ranked by annual completions at the associate's or bachelor's level — a proxy for program scale.

College Location Assoc. Bach. Total
Western Governors University Salt Lake City, UT 0 2,871 2,871
University of Arizona Tucson, AZ 0 68 68
Point Park University Pittsburgh, PA 0 8 8
The University of Alabama Tuscaloosa, AL 0 6 6
Northwestern University Evanston, IL 0 4 4
Ashford University San Diego, CA 0 1 1
Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Baton Rouge, LA 0 1 1
Western Illinois University Macomb, IL 0 0 0
University of Washington-Bothell Campus Bothell, WA 0 0 0
Section 7 · Explore sideways

Related majors to explore

Social Sciences, General

14,846 completions/yr

Human Biology

2,094 completions/yr

Social Sciences, Other

1,279 completions/yr

Medical/Health Humanities

255 completions/yr

Research Methodology and Quantitative Methods

143 completions/yr

Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research, Other

16 completions/yr

Holocaust and Related Studies

7 completions/yr

Geoarcheaology

7 completions/yr
Section 9 · Frequently asked

Common questions

Is a Learning Sciences bachelor’s a teaching license?
No. Learning Sciences is a research and design track, not a state-licensed teacher preparation program. If your goal is to teach in a K-12 classroom, you need a named teacher-education major (Elementary Education, Secondary Education, Special Education) that includes a state-approved licensure pathway, supervised student teaching, and a Praxis or state exam sequence. Learning Sciences graduates go into instructional design, ed-tech product roles, training coordination, or graduate study, not classroom teaching.
Will I need a graduate degree?
Probably yes for the named careers. Of the five occupations linked to this major in federal data, two (postsecondary education teachers and postsecondary social-science teachers) typically require a doctoral or professional degree. Instructional coordinator roles usually require a master’s. Bachelor’s-only paths exist — instructional design assistant, training coordinator, ed-tech product roles — but ceilings are real without graduate study, and most bachelor’s graduates move into a master’s in instructional design, learning sciences, educational psychology, or a related field.
How is this different from Educational Psychology or Instructional Design?
Learning Sciences is broader and more interdisciplinary. Educational Psychology centers on individual cognition, motivation, and assessment, often inside a psychology department. Instructional Design focuses on building training and curriculum products, often inside an education or technology school. Learning Sciences pulls from all of these plus sociology and learning technology, with a stronger research-methods spine. If you already know you want to design corporate training, a dedicated Instructional Design or Educational Technology program may be more direct.
How many colleges offer this bachelor’s?
Nine institutions reported Learning Sciences bachelor’s completions in the latest federal data, but the field is heavily concentrated. Western Governors University accounts for 2,871 of the 2,959 total completions — roughly 97 percent of all degrees granted nationwide. The remaining eight schools (University of Arizona, Northwestern, Point Park, Alabama, LSU, Western Illinois, UW-Bothell, Ashford) graduated fewer than 100 students combined. Program emphasis varies considerably: some lean cognitive-science research, others lean instructional-design practice, and the WGU program is competency-based and online.
What does median early-career pay look like?
Federal data show $46,205 in median earnings five years after a Learning Sciences bachelor’s. That figure is below the median for instructional coordinators ($66K typical) and well below training and development managers ($127K) — because many recent graduates are still in graduate school, in entry-level training-coordinator roles, or in support positions inside instructional-design teams. Earnings climb meaningfully with a master’s and three to five years of design or research experience.
Should I pick this over a named teacher-ed major?
Pick Learning Sciences if you want to study how learning works, design instruction, run educational research, or build ed-tech products. Pick a named teacher-education major if you want to stand in a classroom with your own students. The two majors share vocabulary but lead to different credentials, different first jobs, and different graduate-school routes. Switching from Learning Sciences into classroom teaching usually requires a separate post-baccalaureate licensure program.