This article is an attempt to introduce a new approach to researching teaching with the help of teaching models. Such an approach allows to revise the field of practical teaching and to come to some general conclusions both for a certain period of time and for the whole period since didactics became an independent science. The term “model” as explained in the Big Encyclopedic Dictionary, is defined as “any image, analogy of the object, process or a subject that can be used as either their substitute or their representative” [1, p.822]. Following this definition, one can say that a teaching model is a summarized teaching image that presents a general picture of the educational reality, depicting its structure and functions at a given moment. A teaching model as a theoretical concept can be defined with the help of didactic categories. It also allows to present a «level of sophistication» of the teaching theory in general and in particlular, and it could be used as the most wide basis for the further research in the field. Historically, no teaching model remains stable, it moves on together with the social and school development; and what is more, it allows to review and measure a teaching process at any given moment. It also allows to predict the future changes which are based on the tendencies of development of educational theory and practice. This by itself might give some new insights into the future development of the field.