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During the past fifteen years, a steadily increasing number of physicists have been contributing to the growth of a new field for scholarly inquiry: the learning and teaching of physics. We have by now a rich source of documented information in the many published reports of this research. At this point, it seems reasonable to ask whether we have learned anything from this collective experience that would be useful in current efforts to bring about …

…that appear below are based on results from research on the learning and teaching of physics. The evidence presented in support of the generalizations is taken from the cited articles on research by the Physics Education Group at the University of Washington. However, the same arguments could be based on findings by other investigators. Similar conclusions have also been reached by experienced instructors who have probed student understanding in less formal ways in the classroom.