WHAT HAPPENS WHEN STUDENTS READ MULTIPLE SOURCE DOCUMENTS IN HISTORY

SOME EDUCATORS (e.g., Ravitch, 1992) have suggested that students use multiple source documents to study history. Such documents could be pr imary sources, such as legislative bills or eyewitness accounts; secon dary sources, such as editorials; or tertiary sources, such as textboo ks. This study examined the processes used when high school students w ere presented documents about a controversial incident in U.S. history , the Tonkin Gulf Incident and its aftermath. These students were aske d to read these either to describe or develop an opinion about the inc ident or the Senate action on the Tonkin Gulf Resolution. We were inte rested in (a) whether students could develop a rich, mental model of a historical event, (b) what they would do with the document informatio n, (c) how the task influenced their processing of information, (d) ho w students integrated information across texts, and (e) whether studen ts engaged in corroborating, sourcing, and contextualizing in evaluati ng historical materials. We found that the mental models created by th ese students were more internally consistent after reading at least tw o documents, but did not become more consistent after that. When compa red to knowledgeable readers, they failed to make any growth after a f irst reading. Examining their notes, we found that students tended to rake literal notes, regardless of the final task, suggesting that they were using the initial readings to garner the facts about the inciden t or the resolution If students were asked for a description, they ten ded to stay close to the text. If asked for an opinion, however, they tended to ignore the information in the texts they read, even though t hey may have taken copious notes. Our observations suggest that high s chool students may not be able to profit from multiple texts, especial ly those presenting conflicting opinions, without some specific instru ction in integrating information from different texts.