ABSTRACT
Growing evidence demonstrates that effective teachers exert a powerful, long-lasting in uence on their students and directly contribute to pupil achievement and learning growth (Bransford, Darling-Hammond, & LePage, 2005; Sanders & Rivers, 1996; Smith & Niemi, 2001; Stronge, 2002). This research is emerging within a context of standards and high-stakes accountability, a context in which, as Stanley and Longwell (2004) note, “social studies continues to be seen as relatively less important (in terms of what is tested and what students are held accountable for) than the other major areas of the curriculum” (p. 211). In this shifting and complex landscape, social studies teachers are serving as instructional gatekeepers, making day-to-day decisions about subject matter and instruction (Thornton, 1991) and directly in uencing how and what students learn about social studies (Smith & Niemi, 2001). And, as Bransford et al. (2005) argue, these teachers need to be “increasingly effective in enabling a diverse group of students to learn ever more complex material and to develop a wider range of skills” (p. 2) within a high-stakes environment.
