Teacher candidates in secondary social studies education come to their methods course eager to share their passion for the subject. Enthusiasm often turns to confusion and frustration when they are confronted with unforeseen decisions about the content they will teach before they determine the instructional strategies for teaching that material. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of "Understanding by Design" (UbD) as a model in a social studies methods course for preparing teacher candidates to make purposeful curricular and instructional decisions. This study took place at a small private Midwestern college and involved 10 participants between the ages of 20 and 22. Data was collected for the study on two different levels. First, action research was used to determine the effectiveness of UbD toward this purpose; data for this part of the study was gathered from class meetings. Second, a qualitative approach was used to create profiles of four participants to provide a more detailed understanding of individual experiences. Four sources of data were used in this component of the study: interviews, course artifacts/documents, classroom artifacts/documents and observations. Two assertions emerged from the study. Assertion One: UbD brought awareness to teacher candidates that teaching involves more than creating a fun learning experience for students. While participants included UbD in their coursework at different levels, it did create awareness that teacher candidates can and, according to UbD, should be making purposeful curricular and instructional decisions. Assertion Two: Teacher candidates experience cognitive dissonance when implementing UbD. Changes in one's belief system are only possible when those beliefs are challenged. UbD did just that for the participants. Preparing social studies teacher candidates to make purposeful curricular and instructional decisions is important and worthwhile. Despite its challenges, UbD does provide a structured model that has potential for accomplishing this objective. More research is recommended to better understand how to integrate UbD into a social studies methods course. A further recommendation is to explore the possibilities for expanding the inclusion of curricular and instructional planning into other coursework in a teacher preparation program. [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://www.proquest.com.bibliotheek.ehb.be/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]