Steven Greenstein, PhD

I’m an Associate Professor of Mathematics/Education at Montclair State University. I like to think about mathematical things – and how people think about mathematical things. 

The main goal of my teaching and research agenda is to democratize access to authentic mathematical activity that honors the diversity of learners’ mathematical thinking, that is both nurturing of and nurtured by intellectual agency, and that is guided by self-directed inquiry, mathematical play, and the having of wonderful ideas. 

My research interests are in mathematical experience; people’s mathematical thinking; enactive phenomenology; the Making of physical tools for learning mathematics; and issues of education and social justice. I’m not all that interested in the conventional concerns of the field precisely because they give the field its conventional character. Change is at odds with convention.

I’m currently working on projects focused on the phenomenology of mathematical experience, cultivating children’s creative and qualitative mathematics, and identifying the benefits of a manipulative Making experience within elementary teacher preparation.

I recently committed to writing a fraction problem a day for 90 days. I call ‘em FRACTLES and they’re at fractle.me.

My Research Overview and Teaching Materials are at the links above. Here’s my CV (link to pdf) and here is my blog.

This website is linked to the URL, www.wonderfulideas.org. “Wonderful Ideas” is a title I took with permission from Eleanor Duckworth’s fabulous book, “The Having of Wonderful Ideas.”