The Model of Domain Learning (MDL) is an alternative perspective on expertise that arose from studies of student learning in academic domains, such as reading, history, physics, and biology. A comparison of the MDL and traditional models of expertise is made. The key components and stages of the MDL are then overviewed. Discussion concludes with a consideration of evidence-based implications of this model for educational practice. Without question, the educational research community has garnered much from past decades of expert/novice theory and research. Framed largely by artificial intelligence and information-processing theory, those traditional research programs initially took shape in the 1970s and 1980s around the problem-solving performance of experts. The primary goal was to determine the characteristics and actions of experts so that these features could be programmed in “intelligent ” machines or trained in nonexperts (Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 1999; Chi, Glaser, & Farr, 1988). Despite this impressive list of contributions, it has proven difficult to translate the findings of past generations of expert/ novice research into educational practice (Ericsson & Smith, 1991; Hatano & Oura, 2003). One reason for this translation problem is that traditional programs of expertise research were not undertaken with schools or students in mind (Alexander, 2003). Another translation problem traces to the complex, multifaceted, and dynamic nature of formal schooling and the difficulty of traditional expertise approaches to relate to that unique, sociocultural context (Sternberg, 2003). For these reasons, models and theories drawn directly from school experiences, rather than superimposed on them, seem required to bridge the chasm between current understandings of expertise and educational practice. The Model of Domain Learning (MDL) is one such model (Alexander, 1997). The MDL portrays the nature of developing expertise in academic domains rather than extracting that nature from particular tasks drawn from nonacademic realms of problem solving. The MDL was derived from extensive research in strategic processing, knowledge acquisition, and motivation as well as expertise (e.g., Pintrich,

At the time the International Reading Association was created in 1956, the reading research community was poised at a new juncture in its history (Monaghan & Saul, 1987). The efforts of researchers during this period gave rise to extensive literature on learners and the learning process that remains an enduring legacy for the domain of reading. Yet, this was not the only period of significant change the reading community has experienced in the past 50 years. In fact, reading has periodically responded to internal and external forces resulting in both gradual and dramatic transformations to the domain— transformations that have altered reading study and practice. Our purpose here is to position those transformations within a historical framework. As with others (e.g., VanSledright, 2002), we hold that such a historical perspective allows for reasoned reflection and a certain wisdom that can be easily lost when one is immersed in ongoing study and practice. That is because a historical perspective broadens the vista on reading and adds a critical dimension to the analysis of present-day events and issues. To capture

Users of educational hypertext are faced with the challenge of creating meaning both within and between texts. Cohesion is an important factor contributing to whether a reader is able to capture meaning and comprehend text. When readers are required to fill in conceptual gaps in text, comprehension can fail if they do not have sufficient knowledge. Cohesion helps low-knowledge readers to create a more coherent mental representation of the text. However, text that is too cohesive can inhibit active processing, and thus reduce coherence for more knowledgeable readers. Similar patterns have been found for hypertext, which requires readers to create coherence between multiple electronic texts. Domain novices are in greater need of explicit pointers to important links between documents and gain from having less control over system navigation. Domain experts are in less need of scaffolding within the system. We discuss the use of a multimedia reading strategy training program to help low-knowledge readers better understand less cohesive text. Finally, we discuss four principles to guide hypertext development geared toward improving coherence and metacognitive engagement.

The number of children with a writing disability is not known.

Dirk Tiemen Tempelaar- Expectancy-value based achievement motivations and their role in student learning (almost all in English) Expectancy-value based achievement motivations and their role in student learning