Modeling and simulation practices in engineering education

Much can be learned from the vast work on the use of computer simulations for inquiry learning for the integration of modeling and simulation practices in engineering education. This special issue presents six manuscripts that take steps toward evidence-based teaching and learning practices. These six studies present learning designs that align learning objectives, with evidence of the learning, and pedagogy. Here we highlight the main contributions from each paper individually, but also themes identified across all of them. These themes include (a) approaches for modeling-and-simulation-centric course design; (b) teaching practices and pedagogies for modeling and simulation implementation; and (c) evidence of learning with and about modeling and simulation practices. We conclude our introduction by highlighting desirable characteristics of studies that report on the effectiveness of modeling and simulation in engineering education, and with that we provide some recommendations for improving the scholarship of teaching and learning in this field.