ABSTRACT
This commentary forwards a criteria of what makes for a “good” scientific theory and then provides analysis of the Model of Domain Learning (MDL) as an exemplar theory meeting those criteria. The authors first provide a definition of a scientific theory that is distinguished from how the term is used in everyday speech in the larger scholarly community wherein theory may be better understood as a philosophy or ideology. In this chapter, a scientific theory is understood to be an explanation of the world that has been verified through repeated testing and experimentation. The commentary offers six criteria for good science-based theories. Such theories must (1) have good explanatory power; (2) make precise, testable predictions; (3) be based on extant empirical research, not simply fanciful notions; (4) be falsifiable; (5) be clear and concise, and (6) create a conceptual frame in which vocabulary, ideas, and research results are clearly defined and integrated. These criteria are used to discuss the chapters presented in this section of the book and the ways in which the MDL successfully meets those criteria.
