Over the past decade, LS researchers have expanded their focus to include informal learning environments, instructional methods, policy innovations, and the design of curricula.
[2] In 1983 in the United States, Jan Hawkins and Roy Pea proposed a collaboration between Bank Street College and The New School for Social Research to create a graduate program in learning sciences.
[3] The program, known as "Psychology, Education, and Technology" (PET), was supported through a planning grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
In 1988, Roger Schank's arrival at Northwestern University contributed to the development of the Institute for Learning Sciences.
Yasmin Kafai and Cindy Hmelo-Silver took over as editors in 2009, followed by Iris Tabak and Joshua Radinsky in 2013.
The International Society of the Learning Sciences was later established in 2002 by Janet Kolodner, Tim Koschmann, and Chris Hoadley.
Similarly, LS draws inspiration from cognitive science, and is regarded as a branch of cognitive science; however, it gives particular attention to improving education through the study, modification, and creation of new technologies and learning environments, and various interacting and emergent factors that potentially influence human learning.
The growing acceptance of design-based research methodology as a means for study is often viewed as a significant distinction of LS from the many fields that contribute to it.