• Occur in high incidence and across all age groups;
• Seem logical to students;
• Tend to be resistant to change despite good teaching and making difficulties clear to students;
• Can seriously interfere with the learning of science; and therefore,
• Need to be taken into account in the design of effective teaching and learning activities and course curricula.

• The dissemination of information on student difficulties, sources of difficulties and remediation strategies, in a clear, concise, and intelligible manner to researchers, lecturers and teachers worldwide;
• Research on difficulties, sources, and remediation strategies, especially in areas where knowledge is incomplete or absent. The focussing of such research is assisted by classifying the difficulties, strategies and sources according to how much knowledge we have of them;
• The sharing of conceptual questions and research probes among teachers and researchers;
• Research on difficulties related to the interpretation of diagrams and other visual displays and models;
• The greater implementation by teachers and lecturers of the results of student difficulties research in their teaching, learning and curriculum activities;
• The understanding of science, mathematics and technology through the development of propositional statements of scientifically correct knowledge, and ways of reasoning;
• The transfer and application of knowledge of conceptual and reasoning difficulties in the areas of physics, mathematics, chemistry and biology to those related disciplines (e.g. biochemistry) that utilise common concepts and ways of reasoning;
• Greater collaboration between researchers studying student learning who might come from a wide range of backgrounds including science, mathematics, technology, science education, education, educational psychology, cognitive science and modelling;
• The use of accepted research methods in the field by establishing a section on published research methodology;
• Greater communication between researchers by establishing a glossary of terms used in the field;
• The development of a substantial list of references to published research in the field, with an adequate search facility;
• The use of the submission facility as a means of critiquing and debating information on the database and, for adding details of teaching experiences and published research findings;

Trevor Anderson (PhD) and Jennifer McKenzie (DPhil)
Science Education Research Group (SERG), School of Molecular and Cellular BioSciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal (Pietermaritzburg), South Africa