Research into student learning of various topics in physics has helped to identify certain common learning difficulties faced by most students in introductory and advanced courses. Based on this research, effective pedagogical strategies have been developed to address these obstacles to student learning. In some cases, such as thermodynamics, students' difficulties are related to basic concepts prominent in both physics and chemistry courses (for example, energy, heat, and entropy). I will discuss some of this research, focusing on physics/chemistry "overlap" areas such as thermodynamics, and I will emphasize the ways in which our findings are relevant to instruction in college chemistry courses.