David Feldon

Dr. David Feldon is a professor in the Department of Instructional Technology & Learning Sciences. His scholarship identifies mechanisms of learning and postsecondary education that facilitate the equitable development of expertise in STEM disciplines. To understand the mechanisms that shape individual learning, his work also engages the sociological factors that drive both experiences and opportunities. His research builds bridges from a deep understanding of motivation and cognition to broader cultural and structural influences that shape divergent educational pathways and various modes of success. These efforts have led to substantive contributions in research on doctoral training, cognitive load theory, and their interactions with motivation, published in outlets such as Science, the Journal of Educational Psychology, the Journal of Higher Education, the American Educational Research Journal, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Feldon’s methodological work spans both quantitative and mixed methods, and his innovations in these areas are currently in press as a sole-authored book with Routledge Press, Mixed methods for psychological measurement: Using critical realism to reframe incommensurability. Dr. Feldon was named the 2019 recipient of the American Educational Research Association’s Division D Award for Significant Contributions to Educational Measurement and Research.