The practice turn in the science education community emphasizes students’ engagement in the activities that scientists and engineers actually do when they see, explain, and critique a phenomenon, or solve a problem. This turn highlights the importance of science learning environments for students. Consequently, the purpose of this study was the examination of relevant literature with the aim of proposing theoretically and empirically derived teaching strategies for students’ productive disciplinary engagement (PDE) through model-based learning (MBL) in science classrooms. To this end, collected literature focusing on PDE and MBL was analyzed to better understand 1) how teachers can foster students' PDE in science classrooms, 2) how PDE can be connected to MBL, and 3) what supports are required for students’ PDE through MBL. As a result of our analysis, a close relationship between PDE and MBL was identified. Importantly, this research reveals the promise of MBL for supporting students’ PDE through the problematizing, authority, accountability, and resources. Further, our literature examination provided a better understanding of what supports are required for students’ engagement in PDE through MBL and why this matters in the context of the practice turn in science education.