Making expert thinking visible through staged construction of artefacts on the board
Disciplinary modelling is a teaching technique where the teacher makes visible — through the staged construction of an artefact on the board, often accompanied by think-aloud and checking for understanding — the specific reasoning that characterises their discipline.
The diagram should tell the story even without the teacher's voice — staged construction reveals reasoning that a finished diagram cannot.
The models below cover History and Geography across KS3, using a range of artefact types: box-and-arrow chains, two-column comparisons, claim-evidence-counter structures, radial diagrams, nested boxes, spectra, and Venn diagrams. Each is a complete teaching sequence — think-alouds, construction stages, checking questions, and delivery guidance.