Didactical modelling - an outline of a research methodology

This article is about utilizing the process of building and exploiting models as a framework for inquiry in mathematics education research. We introduce and discuss a model of such a process and compare this model with key methodological features of design research in mathematics education. We argue that despite several communalities, educational design research and our model of the modelling process offer fundamentally different concerns related to an educational research process and that the research process is structured in fundamentally different ways. Hence, we conclude by positing that the distinct structure and concerns offered by the modelling process makes it worthwhile considering it a research methodology in mathematics education, which we will label didactical modelling.