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The fields of cognitive linguistics, evolution of the human mind, and modeling in physics in-struction are brought together in an attempt to create a new agenda for Physics Education Re-search for all stages of education. According to modern cognitive science, human understanding is based on embodied figurative thought. Application of cognitive linguistics to continuum physics and to a recent theory of the dynamics of heat uncover some pervasive imaginative structures which are used to conceptu-alize physical processes. The most important structure emerging is that of a weakly differenti-ated force-dynamic gestalt of physical processes having the aspects of quantity (substance), quality (intensity), and force or power. These aspects are conceptualized by metaphorically projecting a few image schemas onto different phenomena. I will argue here that this cognitive process creates similarities between different fields of physics which allow us to apply analog-ical reasoning to theories of fluids, electricity, heat, chemical substances, and motion. For stu-dents, the challenge is how to learn to differentiate the aspects of the force-dynamic gestalts rather than to go through conceptual change (as advocated by mainstream physics educatio