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I have been working in the area of teacher preparation
for over 20 years. I have taught mathematics methods courses
for pre-service elementary education majors and similar
courses for in-service teachers at the graduate level. I
teach graduate courses and advise doctoral students in
mathematics education. I started my career as a Title I
mathematics teacher in a K-6 setting and have taught
mathematics to students at the middle-school level, as well
as adults in the General College at the University of
Minnesota.
As a member of the Rational Number Project (RNP) team, my
early research interests focused on the teaching and
learning of rational numbers and proportionality for
children in grades 4–8. RNP publications addressing fraction
and proportionality learning can be accessed at
www.cehd.umn.edu/rationalnumberproject.
The National Science Foundation has funded my most recent
research ($550,000). The goals of this project are (a) to
better understand why middle-school students have difficulty
working with fractions and decimals in a meaningful way, (b)
to construct an instructional module to overcome these
difficulties, and (c) to create an online workshop for
teachers to support their use of this instructional module.
The curriculum module will be a companion to the Rational
Number Project (RNP) fraction lessons created with previous
NSF support, and will meet the 6-8 National Standards for
fractions and decimals as stated in the NCTM (2000)
Principles and Standards for School Mathematics. This
research/curriculum development project has been done in
partnership with the Minneapolis Public Schools.
Regular courses taught
MTHE 3101 and MTHE 3102: Mathematics and Pedagogy for Elementary Teachers Courses I and II
Selected publications
Cramer, K., Wyberg, T. & Leavitt, S. (2008).
The role of representations in fraction addition and subtraction.
Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School, 13 (8), 490-496.
Cramer, K., & Wyberg, T. (2007). When
getting the right answers is not always enough. In M. Strutchens &
W. G. Martin (Ed.s). The learning of mathematics 2007 National
Council of Teachers of Mathematics Yearbook (pp. 205 – 220). Reston, VA: NCTM.
Rachlin, S., Cramer, K., Finseth, C., Foreman,
L., Geary, D., Leavitt, S., & Smith, M. (2006). Navigating
through number in grades 6-8. Reston, Va.: National Council of
Teachers of Mathematics.
Cramer, K. (2004). Facilitating teachers’ growth
in content knowledge. In R. Rubenstein (Ed.), Implementing the
teacher principle: 2004 yearbook. Reston, VA: National Council
of Teachers of Mathematics.
Cramer,K., Post, T., & delMas, R. (2002).
Initial fraction learning by fourth- and fifth-grade students: A
comparison of the effects of using commercial curricula with the
effects of using the Rational Number Project curriculum. Journal
for Research in Mathematics Education, 33 (2), 111-144.
Cramer, K. (2003). Using a translation model for
curriculum development and classroom instruction. In R. Lesh & H.
Doerr (Eds.), Beyond Constructivism: Models and modeling
perspectives on mathematics problem solving, learning, and teaching
(pp.449 - 464 ). Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Featured research and outreach
Revised August 2008
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