The benefit of computational modelling in physics teaching: a historical overview

Computational modelling is not only an important element in scientific research, it also has a rich history in physics education and its application in the classroom has changed greatly over the last few decades. To explain why computational modelling is used in physics education, we discuss its use in teaching and the benefits to the teaching and learning process. Secondly, historical developments are highlighted, and different methods of computational modelling are discussed in more detail, developing the desired features of modern software for classroom computational modelling. A review of the research in this field was conducted, showing what is known about the effects of computational modelling on students' conceptual understanding, systemic thinking, views about nature of science and interest in physics, among others variables. Derived from the research results, recommendations are given about the use of computational modelling in physics education and research recommendations are presented with the goal to better understand the interaction between the student and computational modelling process.