Dr. Waldemar 'Walt' Stepnowski is a doctoral lecturer in the School of Education and Social Work. He is dedicated to education and training the next generation of teachers. After reading John Dewey’s Democracy and Education, he could not see a better way to make the world a better place than to educate the future generations, so our American democracy does not die.
Dr. Stepnowski earned his Bachelor’s degree at Penn State University, his Master's in chemistry education at the University of Pennsylvania, and his Doctorate in STEM Education at Temple University. He taught mathematics, physics, chemistry and computer science in the School District of Philadelphia for twenty years before coming to CSI. He worked in diverse school settings in PA, including a challenging school in West Philadelphia, a school dedicated to peace and social justice, an arts high school, and recently at an agricultural high school.
His research focuses on representations, e.g., language, gestures, equations, graphs, diagrams, etc., and how students need to learn to coordinate among them. He led and participated in studies using eye-tracking, think-alouds, observations of teachers, analysis of textbooks and analysis of exam questions, etc. Recently, he joined research teams that are studying teacher professional development during changes in curricula, use of spherical geometry, and enactivism.
Degrees
Ph.D., Temple University
M. Chem Ed, University of Pennsylvania
B.A., Pennsylvania State University
Stepnowski, W. (2024, November). Geometry Representations on Standardized Tests.
Poster presented at the annual meeting of Psychology of Mathematics Education – North
America, Columbus, Ohio.
Stepnowski, W. (2023, October). Coordination of Geometry Representations and Its
Mechanisms. Poster presented at the annual meeting of Psychology of Mathematics
Education – North America, Reno, Nevada.
Zahner, W., Dai, T., Cromley, J. G., Wills, T. W., Booth, J. L., Shipley, T. F., &
Stepnowski, W. (2017). Coordinating multiple representations of polynomials: What do
patterns in students’ solution strategies reveal? Learning and Instruction, 49, 131-141.
Stepnowski, W. (2017, October). Geometry representations: Which ones and why do
teachers use them? Poster presented at the annual meeting of Psychology of Mathematics
Education – North America, Indianapolis, Indiana.
Courses Taught
- EDE 303
- EDE 603
- EDS 318
- EDS 618
- EDS 304
- EDS 604
Contact Information
Monday 2:30pm - 4pm