PhD in Learning Sciences

Your current résumé or CV should include your scholarly background, including any relevant educational experiences, publications, projects, advanced coursework, honors and awards, and/or work or volunteer experience.

Transcripts should list the name of the university, a list of courses you have taken or are taking at the university, and the grades you received in these courses. You should send a transcript for any university from which you have earned college credit, including both undergraduate and graduate degrees.

Please submit a scholarly writing sample of work you have previously written. This could be a master’s thesis or final course paper. The sample should demonstrate your ability to read and write academically at the pre-doctoral level. Your sample should be between 10 and 20 double-spaced pages. Extracts from longer works are accepted.

Please submit a personal statement describing your relevant past experiences and goals for pursuing doctoral study in the learning sciences, in a focused essay (no more than 800 words).

For a doctoral program, your personal statement serves to describe the research you hope to do and explain why you think the Adelphi University learning sciences program is a good place for you to do it. Of course, any ideas you discuss here will likely change as you progress through the program; however, stating your ideas helps us see what kinds of projects interest you and how they fit with the work we do here.

In your statement, you may choose to reflect on some of these questions:

1. What are some meaningful experiences with learning and learning design from your past, and how have they shaped your current thinking about learning and design?
2. What specific expertise do you bring to the program?
3. How have your prior experiences prepared you to succeed in doctoral study?
4. What are your overall research interests, and why?

Sociologist Eve Ewing, EdD, provides a guide to writing such statements that may be helpful for you, although we by no means require this format

Submit two letters of reference. Letters of reference should come from professors with whom you have worked closely who can speak to your scholarly potential. These are often advisers, professors you have conducted research or independent study alongside, or professors in whose courses you have done work you are very proud of. At least one of your letters should be an academic reference (i.e., from a professor). If you think it is useful, one of your two letters can come from someone who has supervised you in another capacity, such as a principal or director; but we suggest you only do this if the work they are speaking to is relevant to the learning sciences.

Letters will be submitted confidentially; submit writers’ contact information in the application.

We suggest you provide your letter writers with all the information you are including in this application. It is usually good to give professors about one month’s notice to submit. It is generally appropriate to send reminders to letter writers shortly before letters are due.

You may choose to include with your application any other material that you think the admissions committee should review, though not including optional materials won’t count against you.. Optional materials may include a design portfolio, a second writing sample or anything else you think will help us better understand your background as it relates to the doctoral degree.

If you are admitted, you will receive a provisional adviser. You will form a program of studies committee after your first semester, then a dissertation committee once you complete the qualifying process.

Our learning sciences program focuses on researching and designing learning in the contemporary world. For us, learning happens everywhere. Our degree empowers you to design innovative learning experiences—and evaluate their effectiveness—in a variety of settings, including schools, museums, libraries, digital spaces and community organizations. With this in mind, our learning sciences PhD program is designed as a learning laboratory, offering a blend of both classroom and out-of-class experiences to ensure that students are equipped to become leaders in their chosen fields.

Our faculty are interested in working with students in a wide variety of settings and exploring a wide variety of research interests connected to learning and modern life. Our faculty’s specialization areas include but are not limited to: Place-Based and Place-Conscious Learning and Design; STEAM (STEM + the Arts) Learning and Making; Educational Technologies and Digital Literacies; and Critical and Political Learning.

Our learning sciences PhD program includes coursework that leads to your independent dissertation research. You will take 13 classes in areas across the learning sciences, embodied learning, adolescent development, critical technology studies and research methodologies. As part of your coursework, you’ll participate in Learning Sciences Workshop classes in which you will engage directly in applied research and design side by side with our faculty. As you finish your coursework, you’ll begin your independent dissertation research on a topic of your choosing under the supervision of a learning sciences faculty member.

Absolutely! Our classes take place in the evenings and employ a hybrid modality, with alternating weeks in person, so that you can continue to work while pursuing your degree. Many of our students complete the degree part time.

All doctoral program applicants are considered for Adelphi’s standard financial aid opportunities that include scholarships, fellowships, graduate research assistantships and university teaching. Within the learning sciences PhD program, specifically, there are a handful of opportunities to teach or work as a research assistant that provide tuition remission. If you are interested in any of these opportunities, speak with the program director for more information.