WGU D664: Learners and Learning Science

Why D664 Shows Up in Your First Term

Learners and Learning Science (D664) is a three-competency-unit course in WGU's School of Education, and the institutional catalog places it in Term 1 of every undergraduate teaching program that uses it — Elementary Education, Special Education, the secondary Mathematics and Science Education degrees, and the non-licensure Educational Studies versions of those same tracks. WGU catalogs it under the common course number EDUC 2226. If you are brand new to the program, this is one of the first courses that asks you to think like a teacher rather than like a student.

Direct answer: Work through all three course sections, take the pre-assessment early and treat every miss as a study prompt, then submit the performance task before you sit the proctored exam. Most students who struggle do so because they memorized theorist names without being able to apply a learning science principle to a classroom scenario — so practice explaining why a technique works, not just what it is called.

The content itself is the science underneath teaching: how the brain takes in and holds onto information, how children change physically, cognitively, and psychologically from early childhood through adolescence, and how established learning theories translate into everyday instructional decisions. WGU's catalog description emphasizes evidence-based practice — the idea that you choose a strategy because research supports it for that learner and that situation, not because it felt good last Tuesday.

Two points of confusion worth clearing up early. First, WGU also offers a graduate course called Learner Development and the Science of Learning (D665, common course number EDUC 5266) whose catalog description is nearly identical to D664's, and a WGU Academy version of this course listed as D664A. D664 is the undergraduate degree-program course and is current, not retired — if your degree plan shows a different code, confirm which variant your program requires before you buy or borrow study material. Second, the course syllabus WGU publishes online is the Academy edition of the same course, so treat the structural details below as the shape of the course and confirm the specifics on your own Course of Study page.

What the Task and the Exam Actually Ask For

D664 has two assessments, and this trips up students who assume it is exam-only. You complete one project task and one final exam, and you need a ranking of Competent on each to close the course. The syllabus notes you may attempt each assessment two times before additional support from your course instructor is necessary — so a first attempt is not a free throwaway, but it is also not the end of the world.

The course is organized into three sections, and the assessments follow them closely:

• The Neuroscience of Learning — examining how principles of neuroscience are applied in instructional practice, working through new information and resources on developmental topics, and analyzing evidence-based research and data to guide the selection of practices and interventions.
• Theories of Growth and Development — applying learning theory and the philosophies of education to determine student learning levels, and identifying expected growth and change at physical, cognitive, and psychological stages of development.
• Recommending Instructional Techniques — researching evidence-based practices, selecting effective approaches to teaching when planning lessons, and describing how educational theory impacts student learning.

The performance task pulls directly from that third section: it asks you to recommend an instructional technique grounded in a principle of learning science, applied to a teaching situation, with in-text citations and references for anything quoted, paraphrased, or summarized. As with WGU tasks generally, you upload files rather than links — a shared Google Docs or OneDrive URL will not be accepted as a submission. The objective exam is proctored, which means you need a working microphone, speakers, and an external webcam; a built-in laptop camera is explicitly not acceptable, and you will need the Meazure Learning Guardian browser installed. Sort that hardware out days before you schedule, not the night before.

Realistic Difficulty and Time to Finish

Many students describe D664 as one of the lighter courses in a first education term — the reading is approachable and there is no math or lab component. That said, it is not a one-evening course, because you have two very different deliverables. Students commonly report finishing in one to three weeks of steady evening work, with the written task taking a day or two on its own and the exam prep taking the rest. Treat those numbers as anecdotes, not a promise; your pace depends on background and hours available.

The difficulty students actually report is not volume; it is question style. The exam leans on applied, scenario-flavored items — you are given a situation and asked which technique or principle fits — so recognition-level memorization leaves you guessing between two plausible answers. If you are transferring in with a psychology background, you will move faster through the developmental material; if the last time you thought about cognitive development was high school, budget the higher end of that range. Pair it with your other first-term work, such as D663 The Professional Educator and D268 Introduction to Communication, and the opening term is very manageable.

A Study Plan That Follows the Three Sections

Use the course's own structure as your schedule rather than inventing one. The day ranges below are a template to stretch or compress, not a rule.

Days 1–2: Diagnose. Take the pre-assessment before you have finished reading. It will feel uncomfortable, and that is the point — a low first score tells you exactly which of the three sections needs your hours. Write down every missed item as a question to answer later, not as an answer to memorize.

Days 3–5: Neuroscience and development. Read the section material actively. After each lesson, close the tab and write two or three sentences from memory about what it claimed and what a teacher would do differently because of it. That retrieval step is the single highest-value habit in this course, and it is itself one of the evidence-based strategies the course examines — you are running the experiment on yourself.

Days 6–8: Theory into practice. Build a one-page comparison chart of the theories and developmental frameworks you encounter. Student-made study sets for D664 lean heavily on developmental and learning theorists, so a chart with columns for who, core claim, stage or mechanism, and what it looks like in a classroom pays off more than flashcards of names alone. Space your reviews: revisit the chart on day 8, day 11, and the morning before your exam rather than rereading it five times in one sitting.

Days 9–11: Write the task. Pick the teaching situation you find easiest to picture, then work backward — technique first, then the principle of learning science that explains it, then the citation that supports the principle. Keep your justification concrete: name the learner behavior you expect to change and why the science predicts that change. Vague, admiring language about engagement is what sends tasks back for revision.

Days 12–14: Test yourself, then sit it. Retake the pre-assessment cold. Anything you miss twice becomes your final review list. If your score is comfortable and you can explain your answers out loud, schedule the exam. The same active-recall approach carries into later education courses such as D184 Standards-Based Assessment, so it is worth building the habit now.

Where D664 Students Lose Ground

• Treating it as an exam-only course. Forgetting the project task until the end is the most common scheduling mistake, and evaluation turnaround can stretch your term.
• Memorizing labels, not mechanisms. Knowing that a theorist proposed stages does not help when the item describes a seven-year-old's behavior and asks what to do next.
• Skipping the citation requirement. The task expects in-text citations and references. Uncited claims are an avoidable returned submission.
• Hardware surprises. No external webcam, no exam. Test your setup and the proctoring browser well ahead of your appointment.
• Buying "actual exam questions" from resale sites. Those listings are an academic-integrity risk, frequently wrong, and no substitute for understanding. Use the course material, the pre-assessment, and your cohort sessions.
• Ignoring the course instructor. Cohort webinars for this course tend to walk through exactly the kind of scenario reasoning the assessments reward.

D664 Readiness Checklist

• Can you describe, in plain language, one way brain science changes a specific instructional decision?
• Can you place a described learner in an approximate developmental stage and say what to expect next?
• Can you name a learning theory and immediately give a classroom example of it in action?
• Can you look at a teaching situation, choose a technique, and justify it with a learning science principle rather than personal preference?
• Can you tell the difference between an evidence-based practice and a popular classroom myth?
• Have you submitted the task with proper in-text citations and a reference list, uploaded as files rather than a link?
• Have you retaken the pre-assessment cold and explained your reasoning aloud on the items you missed?
• Have you confirmed your external webcam, microphone, speakers, and proctoring browser all work?

D664 FAQ

Is WGU D664 an OA or a PA?

Both. The course syllabus lists one project task and one final exam, and you must reach a ranking of Competent on each to pass. Plan for a written performance assessment and a separate proctored objective exam.

How many competency units is D664 worth?

Three competency units, per the WGU institutional catalog, where it appears under the common course number EDUC 2226 in first-term School of Education program plans.

How long does D664 take to finish?

Many students report completing it in roughly one to three weeks of consistent study, depending on background. The exam prep and the written task are separate time commitments, so schedule both.

Is D664 hard?

Most students consider the reading itself approachable. The difficulty comes from application — the assessments favor scenario reasoning over recall, so students who only memorize theorist names tend to find the exam harder than expected.

Does the pre-assessment help?

Yes, and it is the best free diagnostic you have. Take it early to target your studying, then take it again cold before scheduling. Use missed items to guide review rather than memorizing individual answers.

What should I read or watch if the course material is not clicking?

Start with your course instructor and the cohort sessions attached to the course, then check the official course listing in the WGU institutional catalog and program pages. For more study guides in this discipline, browse our School of Education hub or the full WGU course guide index.