Determining effective instructional strategies for the attitudes and achievement of middle school social studies students and the attitudes of their teachers was the focus of this study. Specifically, the researcher looked at the difference in the impacts that direct and indirect instruction made on attitude and achievement of students, attitude of teachers, and on the long-term retention for achievement. Eight fifth grade social studies classes were studied. Four lessons were taught, including two indirectly and two directly. The study took approximately five months. The researcher found no glaring significance between direct and indirect instruction, although all significance that was found favored a stronger gain in achievement when using direct instruction. Significance was found in teacher's preferred strategies of indirect and their student's largest achievement gains when using direct instruction. No differences were found in terms of retention gain while comparing both methods. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]