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This is the first of two closely related articles that together describe how results from research can be used as a guide for curriculum development. This first article shows how the investigation of student understanding of electric circuits by the Physics Education Group has contributed to the building of a research base. The second article describes how the group has drawn on this resource both in developing a curriculum for laboratory-based instruction and in adapting this curriculum to fit the constraints of a traditional introductory course. Also discussed is how, in turn, development and implementation of the curriculum have enriched the research base.
McDermott et al. (Sun,) studied this question.