Fostering Analysis in Historical Inquiry Through Multimedia Embedded Scaffolding

This article reports on the findings of a study designed to assess the utility of a multimedia tutorial intended to scaffold the development of historical source analysis through the use of the SCIM strategy. Seventy-seven undergraduate students (29 males, 48 females) with a mean age of 19.4 years engaged in a 2.5-hour tutorial across three instructional episodes. Students were assessed for retention of the SCIM strategy following each instructional episode (posttests 1–3) and assessed for the application of the SCIM strategy both before the instructional episodes (pretest) and following each episode (posttests 1–3). The results indicate that students learned to recall the SCIM strategy well and apply the first three, of four, stages of the SCIM strategy to new historical sources. This study joins a growing body of empirical research designed to examine how digital technologies can support the teaching and learning of the doing of history.