Mark Felton, PhD (he/him)

Lurie College Mark Felton

Professor, Teacher Education

Mark Felton is a Professor of Teacher Education & Faculty Associate Dean for Research in the Lurie College of Education. His research focuses on how students learn to reason with arguments and evidence in science and social science classrooms. He studies how students learn to leverage peer dialogue to challenge their own assumptions and arrive at more complex, nuanced or accurate levels of understanding. He is currently studying productive civic discourse among youth on social media.

Education

  • Ph.D., Human Development, Columbia University
  • B.A., Psychology, Stanford University

Recent Publications

  • Felton, M., Levin, D.M., De La Paz, S. & Butler, C. (accepted). Scientific argumentation and responsive teaching: Dialogic teaching in three 8th grade science classrooms. Science Education.
  • Garcia-Mila, M., Felton, M., Miralda, A., & Castells, N. (accepted). Pre-service teachers’ perceptions about teaching argumentation in secondary school. Journal of Education for Teaching.
  • Felton, M. & Crowell, A. (2022). Argumentation as a collaborative enterprise: A study of dialogic purpose and dialectical relevance in novice and experienced arguers. Informal Logic, 42(1), 171-202
  • Rapanta, C. & Felton, M. (2021). Learning to Argue Through Dialogue: A Review of Instructional Approaches. Educational Psychology Review. DOI: 10.1007/s10648-021-09637-2

Recent Presentations

  • Felton, M., Middaugh, E. and Fan, H. (2021). Facts don’t speak for themselves: Discussing evidence about Covid-19 in three Reddit communities. Paper presented at the Biennial Meeting of the European Association for Research in Teaching and Learning.
  • Middaugh, E. & Felton, M. (2021). Capturing nuance on social media: Attending to the role of platform, topic and dialogic aims in online political discourse. Paper presented at Pragmasophia 3.
  • Felton, M., Levin, D., De La Paz, S. and Butler, C. (2021). Responsive Teaching and Scientific Argumentation: Dialogic Teaching in Three Middle-School Classrooms. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA). (Conference moved online due to Covid-19)
  • De La Paz, Butler, C., Levin, D. and Felton, M. (2021). Using cognitive apprenticeships to promote disciplinary engagement in middle school science. Symposium paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA). (Conference moved online due to Covid-19)
  • Middaugh, E., Felton, M., & Fan, H. (2021). “People can get really harsh,” Supporting youth engagement with contemporary issues through social media. Symposium paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA). (Conference moved online due to Covid-19)
  • Middaugh, E., Felton, M., & Fan, H. (2020). Building productive online civic discourse: Examining the intersection of platform, issue and individual aims. Panel paper presented at the Association of Internet Researchers Conference 2020. Dublin, Ireland. (Conference moved online due to Covid-19)
  • Middaugh, E. & Felton, M. (2020). Capturing nuance on social media: Attending to the role of platform, topic and dialogic aims in online political discourse. Pragmasophia 3. Sicily, Italy.

Noteworthy Grants and Awards

  • Principal Investigator, Trio Project: Professional Development Across the Teacher Continuum. Office of English Language Acquisition: National Professional Development Grant (U.S. Department of Education, T365Z120188-15). Grant of $1,800,000 awarded AY 2012-2017.

  • Co-Principal Investigator, SPOT: An Classroom observation tool and protocol for STEM in Higher Education, Promoting Research and Innovation in Methodologies for Evaluation (PRIME) Grant (National Science Foundation, DRL-1337069). Grant of $250,000 awarded AY 2013-15.

  • Co-Principal Investigator, Disciplinary Writing Instruction for the Social Studies Classroom: A Path to Adolescent Literacy. Institute for Education Sciences Grant: Interventions for Struggling Adolescent Readers and Writers (U.S. Department of Education). Grant of $1,500,000 awarded AY 2009-2012.

Online Resources

Areas of Research Interest

  • Argumentation
  • Classroom dialogue
  • Adolescent reasoning
  • Teacher professional learning

Recommended Reading

Personality Playlist

Listen to Mark's playlist below and access all of the personality playlists on our Lurie College of Education Spotify account