Alumni Award for Distinguished Contributions to University Teaching
Dr. Ken Cramer
Since Dr. Ken Cramer (PhD, Manitoba) came to the University of Windsor in 1998 following a three-year limited term position at the University of Saskatchewan, he has been a major contributor to the Department of Psychology and specifically is responsible for revitalizing its large introductory course.
In addition to being a consistently highly regarded professor by his students, Dr. Cramer has excelled in his area(s) of specialty: teaching technologies, the impact of Maclean’s rankings on university students, and various topics in educational, personality, and social psychology. Recently, Dr. Cramer has become interested in new strategies for dealing with student engagement and attention, specifically, how to stimulate active learning in larger classrooms. His commitment to teaching, coupled with his innovative teaching methods, continue to inspire hundreds of introductory-level students with a deeper understanding of themselves and the field of psychology. Dr. Cramer says, “in this environmental age, teaching is biodegradable: it’s a job you work yourself out of…Our job is less about information and far more about inquiry. That is, our goal as educators should be to provide students with not just the interest to ask questions, but with the skills to answer them; so I can't be all too surprised when, if I've done what I set out to do, I wake up one day without a job.”
For Dr. Cramer, teaching is a pleasure, and an opportunity to offer personal, academic, and professional support to the 21st-century student, equipping him or her with the resources to understand and transmit new knowledge in a sort of infectious fashion. Winner of the Alumni Award for Distinguished Contributions to University Teaching, Dr. Cramer is a specialist in classroom management and student wellness, and his contributions to university instruction make him a leader in innovative teaching practices.