Michelle Searle, PhD
Michelle holds a PhD in curriculum with a focus on assessment and evaluation. She has received the Credentialed Evaluator (CE) designation from the Canadian Evaluation Society and she is also a member of the Ontario College of Teachers (OCT). Michelle has experience leading research and evaluation teams in the fields of education and health. Her research focuses on increasing the usefulness of program evaluation through a focus on collaborative evaluation approaches and innovative forms of knowledge dissemination that enhance capacity within organizations. She is skilled at using complementary methods drawn from qualitative and quantitative approaches to provide strong evidence for the convergence and collaboration of program findings. By using mixed and multiple methods that are often infused with Arts, Michelle gains a deeper understanding of the phenomena under study and uses this knowledge to inform policy, practice and scholarship.
In addition to being a nationally funded scholar, Michelle’s scholarship in the field of evaluation has been recognized with awards from both the American Evaluation Association and Canadian Evaluation Association. As a researcher-practitioner, Michelle has gained experience working at local, national and international levels. At all of these levels, her goal is to promote the systematic inquiry for the purposes of data-informed decision-making.
As a researcher and evaluator, she is guided by two decades of experiences as a classroom teacher in international and local contexts. She also has experience working in Colombia, Spain, Morocco, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Vietnam, China, and Canada. Across these contexts, she has gained experience working with different forms of curricula including: the Ontario Curriculum, The International General Certificate for Secondary Education, Advanced Placement, and the International Baccalaureate. Michelle has taught across multiple subject areas with large and small groups of learners in traditional, blended and online learning environments.