Jeff Craig
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Mail code: 1804Campus: Tempe
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I am a mathematics educator with over a decade teaching in the college classroom. I have focused on developing novel interdisciplinary approaches to learning and using quantitative literacy in service of understanding modern, complex problems.
I helped design and pilot two undergraduate mathematics courses in quantitative literacy at Michigan State University. I advocated that we center meaningful contexts and global problems in the curriculum. As a result, we built interdisciplinary modules for our units: health, demographics, law, economics, politics, and media. We also developed a lab component to the courses and semester-long projects where students chose their topic and contextualized the quantitative aspects of their chosen problems.
I have also served for three years as Math Director and Senior Manager of Academic Programs for Wonderful College Prep Academy and Wonderful Education. Our mission was to break the cycle of poverty in the Central Valley by providing pathways to healthy and sustainable careers. Our students worked to complete an associate degree while in high school, and I coordinated academic support for all our students. I also helped manage the administration and sequencing of the pathways, and I generated and analyzed student and course data to inform changes in academic supports and program structure.
Ph.D. in Mathematics Education, Michigan State University, 2017
M.S. in Mathematics (Concentration: Statistics), Purdue University, 2012
B.S. in Mathematics, Michigan State University, 2009
B.S. in Economics, Michigan State University, 2009
My scholarship focuses on quantitative literacy as a part of general education at the undergraduate level. I build curricula designed around connected understanding of global and local problems and potential actions. My areas of expertise include quantitative literacy; transdisciplinary curriculum design; historical discourse analysis; social theories of learning; and virtue epistemology.
Journal Articles:
Guzmán, L. D., & Craig, J. C. (2019). The World in Your Pocket: Digital Media as Invitations for Transdisciplinary Inquiry in Mathematics Classrooms. Critical Mathematical Inquiry Occasional Paper Series, 41, 59-75.
Craig, J. C. (2018). The promises of numeracy. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 99(1), 57-71.
Craig, J. C., & Guzmán, L. D. (2018). Six propositions of a social theory of numeracy: Interpreting an influential theory of literacy. Numeracy, 11(2), Article 2.
Tunstall, S. L., Matz, R. L., Craig, J. C. (2018). Quantitative literacy courses as a space for fusing literacies. Journal of General Education, 65(3-4), 178-194.
Tunstall, S. L., Melfi, V., Craig, J. C., Edwards, R., Krause, A., Wassink, B., & Piercey, V. (2016). Quantitative literacy at Michigan State University, 3: Designing general education mathematics courses. Numeracy, 9(2), 6. doi: 10.5038/1936-4660.9.2.6
Book Chapters:
Guzmán, L. D., Craig, J. C., Thanheiser, E., Raygoza, M. C., & Koestler, C. (2022). If the world were a village. In T. Bartell, C. Yeh, M. Felton-Koestler, & R. Berry III (Eds.), Mathematics Lessons to Explore, Understand, and Respond to Social Injustice: Grades 3-5. Corwin Publishing.
Raygoza, M. C., Thanheiser, E., Koestler, C., Craig, J. C., & Guzmán, L. D. (2022). If the world were a village. In B. Conway IV, L. Id-Deen, M. C. Raygoza, A. Ruiz, J. W. Staley, & E. Thanheiser (Eds.), Mathematics Lessons to Explore, Understand, and Respond to Social Injustice: Grades 6-8. Corwin Publishing.
Koestler, C., Thanheiser, E., Raygoza, M. C., Craig, J. C., & Guzmán, L. D. (2022). If the world were a village. In C. Koestler, J. Ward, M. del Rosario Zavala, & T. Bartell (Eds.), Mathematics Lessons to Explore, Understand, and Respond to Social Injustice: Grades K-2. Corwin Publishing.
Craig, J. C., Guzmán, L. D., & Harper, F. K. (2019). Quantitative literacy scholarship from individualist, collectivist, and activist perspectives. Shifting Contexts, Stable Core: Advancing Quantitative Literacy in Higher Education. S. L. Tunstall, V. Piercey, & G. Karaali (Eds.).
Craig, J. C., Mehta, R., & Howard, J. (2019). Quantitative literacy to quantitative literacies: Effects of social media. Shifting Contexts, Stable Core: Advancing Quantitative Literacy in Higher Education. S. L. Tunstall, V. Piercey, & G. Karaali (Eds.).
Kean, E. & Craig, J. C. (2018). Freedom. In D. Krutka, M. Helmsing, & A. Whitlock (Eds.), Keywords in the Social Studies: Concepts and Conversations. New York, NY: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc.
Quantitative Literacy as an Educational Goal, Lead Investigator, 2016 – 2017 (Dissertation)
Quantitative Literacy at the HUB, Co-Investigator, 2016 – 2017
Co-Investigators: Dr. Becky Matz, Dr. Samuel Tunstall
As part of a team of researchers investigating our quantitative literacy courses at MSU, I studied the course-long projects in both courses.
Preparing to Teach Statistics, Lead Investigator (Practicum) 2014 – 2015
A curriculum study of the cognitive demand and content focus of undergraduate statistics courses at several institutions. The courses were part of the course pathways for future mathematics teachers. I used a curriculum alignment model to parse out standard and objectives, assessments, and instructional activities. In each category, I created a heat-map to represent the crossing of cognitive demand with statistical content. Then, I compared the heat-maps across categories to speak about curricular alignment.
Preparing to Teach Algebra Project, 2013 -- 2015
Principal Investigators: Drs. Sharon Senk, Jill Newton, and Yukiko Maeda
My work primarily centered on developing and piloting the coding scheme for our qualitative case study data. I began the work to describe opportunities to learning to teach algebra and presented our early thinking, that others have now picked up. I have analyzed survey data results about how secondary teacher preparation programs have reacted to the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics.
Quantitative Literacy Project, 2013 – 2015
Principal Investigators: Drs. Vince Melfi, Dennis Gilliland, and Alla Sikorskii
My work primarily centered on conducting follow-up studies of undergraduates nearing the end of their undergraduate careers. I gathered follow-up subjects for a follow up study in 2014 and another in 2015. I was involved in the evaluation of aspects of the assessment’s reliability and validity, particular using an at-home, online format. I also conducted statistical explorations of the data.
Courses
2025 Spring
Course Number | Course Title |
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STP 226 | Elements of Statistics |
STP 226 | Elements of Statistics |
STP 226 | Elements of Statistics |
STP 231 | Statistics for Life Science |
STP 493 | Honors Thesis |
2024 Fall
Course Number | Course Title |
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STP 226 | Elements of Statistics |
STP 231 | Statistics for Biosciences |
STP 231 | Statistics for Biosciences |
STP 226 | Elements of Statistics |
STP 492 | Honors Directed Study |
2024 Summer
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
STP 226 | Elements of Statistics |
STP 231 | Statistics for Biosciences |
2024 Spring
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
STP 226 | Elements of Statistics |
STP 226 | Elements of Statistics |
STP 226 | Elements of Statistics |
2023 Fall
Course Number | Course Title |
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STP 226 | Elements of Statistics |
STP 231 | Statistics for Biosciences |
STP 231 | Statistics for Biosciences |
STP 231 | Statistics for Biosciences |
MAT 265 | Calculus for Engineers I |
2023 Summer
Course Number | Course Title |
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MAT 211 | Math for Business Analysis |
MAT 211 | Math for Business Analysis |
2023 Spring
Course Number | Course Title |
---|---|
STP 226 | Elements of Statistics |
STP 226 | Elements of Statistics |
STP 226 | Elements of Statistics |
MAT 210 | Brief Calculus |
MAT 210 | Brief Calculus |
2022 Fall
Course Number | Course Title |
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MAT 142 | College Mathematics |
MAT 117 | College Algebra |
MAT 119 | Finite Mathematics |
MAT 117 | College Algebra |