1998). Likewise, the students who demonstrate low knowledge, little interest,
and limited strategic processing must struggle greatly to make any significant
progress toward competence in a given domain. In all our cluster analytic
studies, my colleagues and I have identified just such disabling profiles (Alex-
ander et al., 1995; Alexander et al., 2002; Murphy & Alexander, 2002).
Thankfully, most individuals who embark on the journey toward expertise
in an academic domain will progress into the stage of competence—the most
encompassing stage of academic development (see Fig. 10.1). I refer to it as
the most encompassing because most students will manage to cross into com-
petence in foundational academic domains. Yet, few will ever achieve profi-
ciency or expertise in any one domain. Moreover, as I (2000) and others (e.g.,
Bereiter & Scardamalia, 1993; Bransford et al., 1999) have argued, the K–12
educational experience is not equipped to prepare experts in any complex, ac-
ademic domains. Nor is it likely that the vast majority of students enrolled in
schools have any desire to become domain experts. Nonetheless, it is fair to
expect that formal education can: (a) help learners develop a foundation of
subject-matter knowledge, (b) contribute to learners’ strategic processing
abilities, and (c) create learning environments that plant the seeds of individ-
ual interest. In effect, the fostering of learner competence can and should be a
laudable goal for the K–12 educational system.
Fundamentally, there are several characteristics of competent learners
that distinguish them from those in acclimation or proficiency. For one, the
MDL predicts a quantitative and qualitative shift in the subject-matter
knowledge of competent learners. It is not just that these individuals have ac-
quired more domain and topic knowledge, which they have. That body of
knowledge is much more conceptually principled and the linkages between
topic and domain knowledge far more integrated. Unlike the elementary stu-
dents my colleagues and I tested (Alexander et al., 1989), the undergraduate
and graduate students could provide much more information about human
biological concepts and they also understood how these concepts interre-
lated. We have seen evidence of this qualitative and quantitative shift repeat-
edly in our research (Alexander et al., 1995). This principled base of subject-
matter knowledge has also been well documented in the more traditional
research on expert–novice differences (Chi et al., 1981).
Second, studies of the MDL have shown that competence is related to an
increasing personal identification with the domain. This characteristic of
competence became more apparent in the research when my colleagues and I
improved our measures for ascertaining participants’ interest in the target
domain (Alexander et al., 2002; VanSledright & Alexander, 2002). Spe-
cifically, in several of the earlier MDL studies, my colleagues and I simply
asked respondents to rate their level of interest in the domain or in topics re-
lated to that domain (Alexander, Kulikowich, & Schulze, 1994; Alexander et
al., 1997). The procedure did not help us distinguish clearly between fleeting
290 ALEXANDER