Research

Rarely has research on teaching and research on student learning been conducted simultaneously within the same classrooms. My research contributes to the emerging work that integrates an examination of what teachers do in the classroom and the resulting understanding that students develop.

My research examines what happens when learners form beginning conceptions of complex concepts at the middle and high school levels. More specifically, I am interested in the phenomenon of backward transfer, which is how learning something new influences a learner’s prior knowledge. For example, I have conducted a study that investigated how middle school students’ prior knowledge of linear functions changed as a result of learning about quadratic functions.

In 2017, I received the following five year NSF CAREER grant to further my research on backward transfer:  Investigating Backward Transfer Effects in the Context of Instructional Activities About Linear and Quadratic Functions ($880,300.00). National Science Foundation CAREER program through Discovery Research K-12 (DRK-12), 2017-2023.
(http://www.udel.edu/udaily/2017/may/nsf-career-award-hohensee/)
(https://www.udel.edu/udaily/2019/july/national-science-foundation-award-algebra-charles-hohensee/)

In 2021, Dr. Joanne Lobato and I published the edited book with Springer on progressive perspectives on the transfer of learning:

Hohensee, C., & Lobato, J. (2021). Transfer of learning: Progressive perspectives for mathematics education and related fields. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65632-4

The following are my journal and book chapter publications:

Hohensee, C., Willoughby, L., & Gartland, S. (2022). Backward transfer effects on ways of reasoning about linear functions with instruction on quadratic functions. Mathematical Thinking and Learning. https://doi.org/10.1080/10986065.2022.2037043

Suppa, S., & Hohensee, C. (2021). Struggles pre-service teachers experience when taking
a pre-symbolic algebra content course. Mathematics Teacher Education and Development, 23(4), 50–73.

Hohensee, C. (2021). A case for theory development about backward transfer. In C. Hohensee & J. Lobato (Eds.), Transfer of learning: Progressive perspectives for mathematics education and related fields (pp. 81–102). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65632-4_4

Lobato, J., & Hohensee, C. (2021). Progressive perspectives on transfer. In C. Hohensee & J. Lobato (Eds.), Transfer of learning: Progressive perspectives for mathematics education and related fields (pp. 3–25). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65632-4_1

Hohensee, C., Gartland, S., Willoughby, L., & Melville, M. (2021). Backward transfer influences from quadratic functions instruction on students’ prior ways of covariational reasoning about linear functions. Journal of Mathematical Behavior, 61. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmathb.2020.100834

Cai, J., Hwang, S., Hiebert, J., Hohensee, C., Morris, A., & Robison, V. (2020). Communicating the significance of research questions: Insights from peer review at a flagship journal. International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, 18(Suppl 1), 11–24. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10763-020-10073-x

Hohensee, C., & Lewis, W. E. (2019). Building bridges: Cross-disciplinary peer-coaching self-study. Studying Teacher Education, 15(2), 98–117. https://doi.org/10.1080/17425964.2018.1555525

Hohensee, C., & Jansen, A. (2017). Elementary pre-service teachers’ transitional conceptions of partitive division with proper-fraction divisors. Mathematical Thinking and Learning, 19(4), 210–236. https://doi.org/10.1080/10986065.2017.1346452

Hohensee, C. (2017). Student noticing in classroom settings: A process underlying influences on prior ways of reasoning. Journal of Mathematical Behavior, 42, 69–91. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmathb.2016.03.002

*Hohensee, C. (2016). Teachers’ awareness of the relationship between prior knowledge and new learning. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 47(1), 16–26. https://doi.org/10.5951/jresematheduc.47.1.0017

Jansen, A., & Hohensee, C. (2016). Why teach mathematics? Values underlying mathematics teaching in feature films. In M. Shoffner (Ed.), Exploring teachers in fiction and film: Saviors, scapegoats and schoolmarms (pp. 90–102). New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315671949

Jansen, A., & Hohensee, C. (2016). Examining and elaborating upon the nature of elementary prospective teachers’ conceptions of partitive division with fractions. Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, 19(6), 503–522. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10857-015-9312-0

Park, J., Flores, A., & Hohensee, C. (2016). Fractions as numbers and extensions of the number system: Developing activities based on research. Ohio Journal of School Mathematics, 73, 13–21. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/1811/80141

Hohensee, C. (2015). Preparing elementary pre-service teachers to teach early algebra. Journal of Mathematic Teacher Education, 20(3), 231–257. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10857-015-9324-9

Lobato, J., Walters, C. D., Hohensee, C., Gruver, J., & Diamond, J. M. (2015). Leveraging failure in design research. ZDM – The International Journal on Mathematics Education, 47, 963–979. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11858-015-0695-2

**Hohensee, C. (2014). Backward transfer: An investigation of the influence of quadratic functions instruction on students’ prior ways of reasoning about linear functions. Mathematical Thinking and Learning, 16(2), 135–174. https://doi.org/10.1080/10986065.2014.889503

Lobato, J., Hohensee, C., & Diamond, J. (2013). What can we learn by comparing students’ diagram-construction processes with the mathematical conceptions inferred from their explanations with completed diagrams? An exploratory study. Mathematics Education Research Journal, 26(3), 607–634. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13394-013-0106-3

Lobato, J., Hohensee, C., & Rhodehamel, B. (2013). Students’ mathematical noticing. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 44(5), 805–847. https://doi.org/10.5951/jresematheduc.44.5.0809

Lobato, J., Hohensee, C., Rhodehamel, B., & Diamond, J. (2012). Using student reasoning to inform the development of conceptual learning goals: The case of quadratic functions. Mathematical Thinking and Learning, 14(2), 85–119. https://doi.org/10.1080/10986065.2012.656362

Lobato, J., Rhodehamel, B., & Hohensee, C. (2012). “Noticing” as an alternative transfer of learning process. The Journal for the Learning Sciences, 21(3), 433–482. https://doi.org/10.1080/10508406.2012.682189

*Mathematics Education Podcast about article: Retrieved from http://mathed.podomatic.com/entry/2016-01-25T07_00_55-08_00

**Early Career Publication Award (2015) from AERA’s Special Interest Group for Research in Mathematics Education [SIG-RME]