The Art of Modelling: Demonstrating Expert Knowledge

Taking a broader view of what modelling means for teaching in the primary classroom

Jun 16, 2025

💡 The Big Idea

Emma’s post, alongside Rachel and Alex’s reflections on modelling, raises an important warning about how we’ve come to think about it. Too often, modelling is reduced to a slick I Do example at the start of the lesson before swiftly moving on. Combined with the overused “too much teacher talk” narrative, we’ve started to view modelling as a one-time event. A front-of-class explanation which moves quickly straight into practice.

But in reality, modelling should thread through the entire learning experience. And teacher talk is a good thing. Not when it replaces or hinders learning, of course, but teachers are the experts in the room. Whether it’s phonics, calculation methods, or physical geography, children need access to that expertise, not just through tasks, but through modelling, explanation, and thinking aloud.

Emma goes on to say that modelling is often misunderstood as “explaining something at the front.” But in primary classrooms, and many secondary ones too, in order to share expertise, that just isn’t enough.

🧠 Modelling Is More Than a Single Event

Modelling should take many forms and appear at different moments across the learning sequence.

It might be a carefully scripted demonstration that lasts five minutes.
Or it might be a quick, in-the-moment prompt that takes five seconds.

Sometimes we model from the front.
Sometimes we model in response to what a pupil has just said.
Sometimes we model directly into a child’s book.
Sometimes it’s on flipchart paper.
Sometimes it’s verbal.
Sometimes it’s visual.
Sometimes it’s both.

The point is: modelling isn’t one thing.
It’s a flexible, responsive strategy, and its strength lies, like so many codified techniques, in how well we adapt it to the needs of the moment.

🛠 Demonstrating Expert Knowledge

The word modelling usually describes a verbal and/or visual demonstration that makes a process, product, performance, or way of thinking visible. Modelling is essential for novice learners. It directs attention, encodes key moves, and shows what success can look like. But in practice, we do far more than just model outcomes.

That’s why a broader and more useful umbrella term is demonstrating expert understanding or demonstrating expertise. It is the act of showing how to think, act, or respond in relation to a concept, task, or experience.

Sometimes it’s a classic I Do example.
Sometimes it’s narrating a thought process.
Sometimes it’s handing a pupil sandpaper to feel what rough means.
Sometimes it’s offering a writing frame to support decision-making.

Demonstrating expertise isn’t just about showing the best. It’s about showing what to do when things go wrong, when you encounter something new, or when the answer isn’t obvious. It’s showing novice learners, like our primary children, how experts think and behave. It’s about making the thinking and conceptual structures behind expertese visible and accessible. As Oliver Caviglioli says:

‘Students don’t need to see how intelligent you are. They need to know how you became intelligent.’

And that’s exactly what demonstrating expertise is all about.

But it’s not just for the opening of a lesson. It should be woven throughout, in different ways, and at different times. So, what does demonstrating expertise look like in practice? Here are six approaches teachers can use throughout a lesson.

🧑‍🏫 1. Structured Whole-Class Modelling

A full or chunked demonstration of a process or concept delivered to the class, usually at the beginning of the learning sequence.

This is the most recognisable form of modelling. The “Watch me first” moment.
The I Do.

Writing a full sentence or paragraph from scratch, live
Working through a new calculation on the board
Demonstrating a scientific method or classroom routine
Showing how to answer a specific question type
Explaining how a river forms using visual representations

This kind of modelling lays the groundwork. It sets the tone, shares vocabulary, and gives pupils a clear picture of what something looks like before they attempt it themselves.

🔁 2. Backwards Fading Modelling

A gradual-release approach that starts with full modelling and fades step-by-step over time. This is modelling designed for gradual independence. Pupils first see the whole process done well. Then, over time, they take on more of it themselves as the model fades.

In maths:

First, model the full column subtraction with exchanging.
Next time, model only the setup and the first exchange - pupils complete the rest.
Eventually, model just the setup - pupils complete the full process independently.

This strategy lends itself mostly to the modelling of processes you wish the children to replicate, like completing calculations, constructing sentences or singing the verse of a song.

🧠 3. Thinking Aloud

Narrating the thought process aloud as you make decisions can be mapped with other forms of modelling, but deserves its own place in this post. When we think aloud, we reveal the expert thinking that could go unseen. We make decision-making explicit and visible. Most modelling will show how to do something. Thinking Aloud models why we are doing something.

“I’m picking this word because it adds tension.”
“I could use this strategy, but it’s a bit slow…”
“I’m stuck. Let me re-read the question carefully.”
“I’m going to pass the ball back to the goalkeeper because…”

I would argue that Thinking Aloud needs its own space because sometimes there is a reason not to include it. If we are demonstrating a process for the first time, our first target might just be to develop fluency in the process before we model again with Thinking Aloud to deepen understanding. If we did it all at once, it might simply be too much. Cognitive Overload.

🧱 4. Visual Models and Scaffolds

We sometimes need other ways of demonstrating expertise. These might come in the form of static or structured visual representations.

A sentence skeleton for writing
A flowchart for solving science problems
A model text annotated with features
A worked example at the top of a maths sheet
A colour-coded example

Sometimes we call these scaffolds, but they’re models too. They show how to think, even when the teacher isn’t talking.

If you want to know what rough feels like, go hug a tree!

Sometimes, our own words and explanations are not enough. Not because we are no good, but because some things are better explained through experience. Physical modelling that shows what something looks or feels like.

In PE: demonstrating balance, footwork, or form
In art: demonstrating brush pressure or stroke types
In science: handling materials before identifying properties

This type of modelling connects ideas to sensations. It’s embodied cognition in action.

⏱ 6. Micro-Modelling (in the moment)

Demonstrating expertise does not always have to be an event. Short, live interventions (5 to 15 seconds) can be enough. This can be through what we say and how we respond in the moment.

A quick rephrase: “Try that again, but I’d start my explanation with the word ‘although…’”
A verbal upgrade: “Instead of the word nice, I’d use…”
A margin sketch during feedback: “Watch how I’d start this sum.”
Repeating a sentence back with corrected grammar

These moments are tiny but powerful. Although small and impromptu, they are still opportunities to demonstrate thinking and the expert knowledge you have. This modelling responds exactly to what’s needed, when it’s needed.

🧠 The Bits That Stick

✅ Modelling is more than a one-off start-of-lesson technique. It should be thread through the whole learning experience
✅ It’s not just showing how to do something, but how to think like an expert
✅ Demonstrating expertise describes a broader family of strategies: modelling, scaffolding, prompting, narrating, and hands-on experience all play a role

In a bit,
Coops 😎