ABSTRACT
The goal of this chapter is to ponder the question of “What’s next” with regard to the Model of Domain Learning (MDL). To achieve that goal, Alexander first looks back at the development of the MDL and the influences that helped shape its focus on the individual learner, the interplay of knowledge and strategic processing, and a concern for individual and situational interest. This retrospective portion concludes with a discussion of six principles of academic development derived from more than a generation of MDL empirical research. In the prospective segment of the chapter that follows, Alexander projects the future of the MDL in three arenas: context, or a broadening of the psychosocial environments relevant to academic development; components, or transformations in the nature and interplay of knowledge, strategies, and interest; and the calculus, or the mechanisms that will allow for more sophisticated and nuanced examination of academic development in general and the MDL in particular.
