Outstanding Scholar

Dr. Yuchun Zhou joined the Program of Educational Research and Evaluation at Ohio University in August 2014 after receiving her Ph.D. degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with a specialization in Quantitative, Qualitative, and Psychometric Methods.  In her early-mid career, Dr. Zhou’s research accomplishments stand out. Her expertise lies in educational research methodology, with a focus on mixed methods research and educational measurement.  Remarkably, she has published 25 refereed journal articles, half of which have appeared in top-ranked journals, such as the Journal of Mixed Methods Research, the No.1 journal ranked in her specialization. Additionally, she has secured multiple internal and external grants, including a competitive NIH R15 grant and Ohio University internal 1804 Fund. She was nominated as the Presidential Research Scholar in 2023-24 at Ohio University.

Exceptional Educator

Dr. Zhou is an exceptional educator. She has been dedicated to mentoring and educating next-generation researchers in Social and Behavioral Sciences.  She has mentored more than 30 doctoral students across disciplines for conference presentations (e.g., International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry, American Educational Research Association (AERA) annual meetings, etc.) and article publications (e.g., International Journal of Multiple Research Approaches, Journal of International Students, International Journal for the Advancement of Counseling, etc.).    These students gained solid knowledge and expertise in research methodology under Dr. Zhou’s mentoring.  Eight of them are currently university faculty and are able to teach research methods courses in addition to their subject courses. 

Emerging Leader

Dr. Zhou has received national and international reputations. She is the committee chair at the Mixed Methods International Research Association (MMIRA), the scholarly association that supports mixed methods with the goal of producing social and global justice. She is the Program Chair at the AERA Professors of Educational Research SIG in 2023-24. AERA is the No. 1 national research society in Education and strives to promote the use of research to improve education and serve the public good. The SIG of the Professors of Educational Research is to generate and disseminate knowledge about effective practices for teaching educational research. One way Dr. Zhou has shown leadership is by serving as the founding program director for the online Certificate in Mixed Methods Research, the only program of its kind in the State.  In 2023, Dr. Zhou was named Mid-American Conference (MAC) Academic Leadership Development Program Leadership Fellow and is one of only four Ohio University faculty to receive the honor. https://www.ohio.edu/news/2023/11/four-ohio-faculty-participating-leadership-fellows-2023-24-mac-aldp

Interdisciplinary Contributor

Dr. Zhou is an interdisciplinary researcher and contributes to other disciplines, including Health Sciences, Human Behaviors, Psychometrics, and Engineering Technology, etc. For example, in 2022, the U.S. government's Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, tasking with using rigorous research to evaluate the Administration for Children and Families, invited Dr. Zhou to deliver a keynote presentation called “The Administration for Children and Families: Building blocks for designing a rigorous mixed methods research study.” Scale development is needed in many social sciences disciplines, but one major challenge is the lack of systematic guidance. This gap led Zhou to a work titled “A mixed methods model of scale development and validation analysis” (Zhou, 2019). This article discussed a five-step model of using mixed methods to develop new scales and using multiple approaches to conduct validation analysis in the procedure. One reviewer comment stated that “this article makes an important contribution to the research field.” This publication added to the knowledge of mixed methods application in psychometrics. These impressive contributions highlight Dr. Zhou’s exceptional impact on the academic community and the far-reaching quality of her research endeavors.

Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=cFYo5WMAAAAJ&hl=en

ResearchGate:  https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Yuchun-Zhou