Uses of the past: Reflections on United States physics curriculum development 1955 to 1990

A personal assessment is made of the United States experience in physics curriculum development and teacher education over the past 35 years. It is concluded that, although substantial improvements were achieved in the development of hands-on primary and secondary school curricula, their effectiveness was in large part negated by logistic problems in implementation and deficiencies in teacher preparation. At the college/university level, existing materials tend to cover far too much material far too rapidly, and, except for small, separated pockets of promising activity, inadequate attention is being paid, in the aggregate, to students' levels of cognitive development and to the learning problems revealed in research on teaching and learning. Some directions of effort that might prove helpful are described.