Cheryl Poth

Area of Study / Keywords

Education Educational psychology Mixed methods research Qualitative research Program evaluation Classroom assessment Health sciences education

About

Cheryl Poth is a professor at the University of Alberta’s Faculty of Education. She received her bachelors of science and bachelors of education from Queen’s University, and her masters of arts from the University of Alabama. After completing her PhD at Queen’s, she joined the U of A in 2008. She began serving as a faculty member in the research-intensive Centre for Applied Research in Assessment and Measurement in Education (CRAME) in the Measurement, Evaluation, and Data Science program area in the Faculty of Education. She currently conducts research, teaches, and supervises graduate students in the areas of mixed methods research, program evaluation, qualitative research, classroom assessment, and health sciences education. 

As a researcher, Poth collaborates with professional associations, community organizations, students, clinicians, teachers and academics to examine a range of issues concerned with enhancing capacity for impactful research and evaluation across diverse contexts under conditions of varying complexity. Her work integrates across the disciplines of education, psychology and health sciences. Notably, Poth’s project findings contribute to developments in the fields of mixed method research, program evaluation, qualitative research and assessment. 

Poth’s career as an educator and evaluator spans more than two decades, working with partner communities both internationally and across Canada. Cheryl taught high school science internationally at the American International School in Quito, Ecuador, and with West Island College International, as well as science and French in the Halton District School Board in Ontario. She has worked as a program evaluator in a wide array of sectors across Canada and with international development agencies in South America and Africa, and holds the Credentialed Evaluator (CE) designation from the Canadian Evaluation Society.

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7217-7599

Research

Books

Creswell, J., & Poth, C. (2024). Qualitative inquiry & research design (5th ed.). Sage.

Poth, C. (Ed; 2023). The SAGE Handbook of Mixed Methods Research Design. Sage

Poth, C. (2021). Research ethics. Sage.

Poth, C. (2018). Innovations in mixed methods research: Integrative thinking with complexity. Sage.

Creswell, J., & Poth, C. (2017). Qualitative inquiry & research design (4th ed.). Sage.

Select Publications

Poth, C., Wongvorachan, T., Bulut, O., & Otto, S. J. G. (2024). Adaptive case study-mixed methods design practices for researchers studying complex phenomena. Journal of Mixed Methods Research. https://doi.org/10.1177/15586898241250217

Miller-Young, J., Poth, C., & Vargas Madriz, F. (2024). What matters, to whom and why? Examining participation and impacts of instructor development efforts in higher education contexts, International Journal for Academic Development, 1-14 https://doi.org/10.1080/1360144X.2023.2286983 

Searle, M., Cooper, A., Worthington, P., Hughes, J.*, Gokiert, R., & Poth, C. (2024). Mapping evaluation use: A scoping review of extant literature (2005-2022), American Journal of Evaluation.

Poth, C., Bullock, E., & Eppel, E. (2023). Adaptive mixed methods research design practices to address complexity in business and management research. In R. Cameron & X. Golenko (Eds.) Handbook of Mixed Methods in Business and Management (pp. 329-347). Edward Elgar.

Poth, C., Creamer, E., & Cain, L. (2023). Promising ethical practices for fully integrated mixed methods research. In R. Tierney, F. Rizvi, K. Ercikan, & G. Smith (Eds.), International Encyclopedia of Education (4th ed., pp. 522-530). Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-818630-5.11051-6

Joly, V., McClure, C., Poth, C., Bachan, N., McCarthy, R., & Redhead, C., &. Pei, J. (2023). Advancing an ethical imperative for collaborative approaches to evaluation with low incidence and underserved communities: insights from a DeafBlind support services pilot program evaluation, Evaluation Journal of Australasia, 23(3) https://doi.org/10.1177/1035719X231179984

Poth, C. & Bullock, E. (2023). Mixed methods research design practices to address complexity in education. In R. Tierney, F. Rizvi, K. Ercikan, & G. Smith (Eds.), International Encyclopedia of Education (4th ed., pp. 615-625). Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-818630-5.11061-9

Select Chapters

Poth, C. (2022forthcoming). Mixed Methods Integration in Times of Complexity (pp. 169-191). In J. Hitchcock & A. Onwuegbuzie (Eds.) Routledge Handbook for Advancing Integration in Mixed Methods Research, London: Routledge.

Shulha, L., Searle, M., Poth, C., & Chalas, A. (2019). Stakeholders weigh in on collaborative approaches to evaluation (pp. 99-122). In J. A. Chouinard, I. Bourgeois, & C. Amo (Eds.) Growing the knowledge base in evaluation: The contributions of J. Bradley Cousins. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing Inc.

Teaching

Cheryl is active in the scholarship of teaching and her approach is continually being shaped by her experiences as a learner and instructor, as well as by her beliefs and research related to what facilitates learning. She views teaching and learning as complex and synergistic processes among the learner, the instructor, the context, and the ideas. She supports learners as they progressively develop competence across diverse areas of professional practice including (but not limited to) teachers, counselors, psychologists, physicians, researchers, and evaluators. Her commitment and efforts were recognized with the University of Alberta Provost’s Award for Early Achievement of Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching in 2013 and the McCalla Teaching Professorship 2020-22.

EDPY 604: Mixed Methods Approaches to Educational Research

EDPY 615: Program Evaluation

EDPY 501: Introduction to Methods of Educational Research

EDPY 303: Educational Assessment

If you are interested in pursuing graduate studies, research collaborations and evaluation services please contact me to explore possibilities

EDPY 604 - Mixed Methods Approaches to Educational Research

Introduction to mixed methods research as a means of conducting educational research. Within each of the major mixed methods designs, the research problems addressed, data collection and analysis strategies, and reporting venues are discussed. Prerequisites: EDPY 501 or equivalent. Additional methods courses in quantitative and qualitative research are recommended.

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